Taha Siddiqui Explained

Taha Siddiqui
Nationality:Pakistani
Occupation:Journalist
Awards:Albert Londres Prize (2014)

Taha Siddiqui is a Pakistani-born journalist based in Paris.[1] He is an active critic of the establishment of Pakistan.[2]

Early life and career

He is a graduate of Institute of Business Administration, Karachi.[3] Calling himself an "accidental journalist", he entered the news industry as a financial analyst for CNBC. After joining Geo TV as a business reporter, he took on more mainstream assignments, becoming a reporter at Express TV and a producer for Dunya TV before joining France 24 in 2012. Two years later, he won the Albert Londres Prize, alongside Julien Fouchet and Sylvain Lepetit, for The Polio War, a documentary on the challenges facing polio eradication efforts in Pakistan.[4]

He is also founder of the SAFE Newsrooms.[5] [6]

In January 2018, in Islamabad, gunmen tried to abduct Siddiqui, but he managed to escape.[7] [8]

Afterwards, he and his family moved to Paris, where they live in exile. In a Washington Post opinion article, Siddiqui stated that a US intelligence agency informed him of plans by the Pakistani military to assassinate him if he ever returned.[9] In 2020, he opened "The Dissident Club", a bar for exiles and dissidents serving as a refuge and a discussion space. He co-authored an autobiographic bande dessinée graphic novel of the same name that was released in 2023.[10]

Awards

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Taha Siddiqui.
  2. Web site: Pakistan’s ‘new normal’: a journalist on the run from gunmen. The Irish Times.
  3. Web site: IBA Alumnus, Taha Siddiqui, wins the Albert Londres Prize.
  4. Web site: Madeeha. Syed. 2024-04-13. The accidental journalist who won the 'French Pulitzer'. 17 May 2014. Dawn.
  5. Web site: Taha Siddiqui.
  6. Web site: Taha Siddiqui | al Jazeera News | Today's latest from al Jazeera.
  7. News: اسلام آباد سے صحافی طٰحہ صدیقی کے اغوا کی کوشش. BBC News اردو.
  8. Web site: Pakistan is my home. But as a journalist, my life is in danger there | Taha Siddiqui. TheGuardian.com. 5 April 2018.
  9. News: 2024-04-14. Siddiqui. Taha. Opinion - I’m a journalist who fled Pakistan, but I no longer feel safe in exile. Washington Post. 8 January 2019. 0190-8286. www.washingtonpost.com.
  10. Web site: 2024-04-14. From Pakistani 'kill list' to comic book author. 13 March 2023. France 24.