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

Taha Siddiqui
NationalityPakistani
Alma materInstitute of Business Administration, Karachi
OccupationJournalist
AwardsAlbert Londres Prize (2014)

Early life and career

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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

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References

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