The Daniel Pearl Foundation partners with the Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships to bring mid-career foreign journalists and editors from predominantly South Asian countries for six months to work at mainstream U.S. newsrooms, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Wall Street Journal, where they work in an environment where freedom of the press and speaking truth to power are practiced every day. They also spend a week at the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, where they get a different perspective of the Jewish community than they might have received in their home countries. At the end of their stay, they share their experiences at a free public event hosted by the Los Angeles Press Club.

Emran Hossain (Bangladesh) will be working in Washington, D.C. at the Huffington Post. He has been a staff reporter since 2012 at Bangladesh’s first online newspaper, bdnews24.com, in Dhaka, where he covers special assignments and works on the English desk of the bilingual newspaper.

Khalid Khattak (Pakistan) will be working in Washington, D.C. at the Wall Street Journal. In Pakistan, Khalid is a staff reporter for The News International in Lahore, where he has been covering education, youth affairs, health and social issues.

Waqas Banoori (Pakistan) will be working in Pittsburgh at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He is an editor with the Independent Press Network in Islamabad. He is also a columnist for The Frontier Post, a leading English newspaper with circulation in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Aida Ahmad (Malaysia) worked at the Los Angeles Times. She has been a reporter for The Star in Kuala Lumpur since 2010, covering daily news and current issues in Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding areas with a focus on federal and state governments as well as local council issues, policies, and politics.

Adnan Rashid (Pakistan) the inaugural Pearl-Shahzad Fellow, worked at the Berkshire Eagle and for public radio station WAMC. In Pakistan, Rashid works for IMEDIA as a senior producer, leading a team of radio journalists in the KPK province and federal tribal areas, focusing on social issues. He is also a contributor to the BBC Outlook.

Aatekah Ahmad Mir (Pakistan) worked in New York at the Wall Street Journal. She is a senior sub-editor for The Express Tribune, a partner of the International Herald Tribune, in Lahore, Pakistan. Her primary responsibilities include monitoring and selecting the news stories, assigning and editing stories, and supervising the newspaper layout. Read Her Fellowship Articles

Emal Naweed Haidary (Afghanistan) worked at the Los Angeles Times. He is a reporter for the Bokhdi Afghan News Agency and recently started working as editor for Afghan Voices, an organization that trains young Afghan journalists. Based in Kabul, hereports on a broad range of issues including natural disasters, politics, economics, culture, women and sports. Read His Fellowship Articles

Nasry Ahmed Esmat (Egypt) worked at the Los Angeles Times and ProPublica, a non-profit newsroom for investigative journalism in the public interest. He has been a reporter and copy editor at Al-Ahram newspaper in Cairo covering judicial events as well as an interactivity editor and trainer for Filbalad.com, an independent news portal with different news websites and a news provider for mobile phones.

Aoun Sahi (Pakistan) worked at the Atlanta Bureau of the Wall Street Journal. He has been a reporter for The News on Sunday, the weekend magazine of The News International. Based at the headquarters in Lahore, he covers crime, environment, militancy, politics, security, and social issues.

Shahzada Irfan Ahmed (Pakistan) was the first Daniel Pearl Fellow to work at the Houston Chronicle. He has been Assistant Editor and Special Correspondent for The News International since 2003, covering the economy, health, human rights, information technology, law, social issues and telecommunications. He also works as a visiting lecturer at state-owned Punjab University where he teaches master's students in Development Journalism. Read His Fellowship Articles

Sherine El Madany (Egypt) was the third Daniel Pearl Fellow to join the staff of the Los Angeles Times. She has been at The Daily News Egypt since 2007, as a business reporter covering local and regional business news, including banking, corporate affairs, foreign exchange, inflation, investment, poverty, privatization and trade. Read Her Fellowship Articles

Umar Cheema (Pakistan) was the first Daniel Pearl Fellow to work at the New York Times. He works in Islamabad for Karachi based The News International, reporting on politics, jihadi outfits and terrorism. He served as the Secretary General of the Islamabad chapter of the South Asia Free Media Association. Read His Fellowship Articles - Read about his 2010 Abduction in Pakistan

Amr Emam (Egypt) was the first to be placed  at the San Francisco Chronicle.  Mr. Emam stated after his fellowship , “I am a completely changed man and it is all thanks to the family who, once losing a dear and exquisite son, decided to trade good for evil. Instead of grieving, they decided to change the world and put understanding in place of ignorance, light in place of darkness." Read His                                   Fellowship Articles

Ghanashyam Ojha (Nepal) was the first Daniel Pearl Fellow from Nepal and the first to work at the North Adams Transcript / Berkshire Eagle, where Danny began his career. Read His Fellowship Articles

Shahid Hussain Shah (Pakistan) was the third Daniel Pearl Fellow to work at the Washington, DC Bureau of the Wall Street Journal. He was a business reporter for The News International based in Karachi. Read His Fellowship Articles

Walid Al-Saqaf (Yemen) worked at the Washington, DC bureau of the Wall Street Journal. He was the editor-in-chief of the Yemen Times, Yemen’s first English-language newspaper, and was the second Daniel Pearl Fellow hosted by the Wall Street Journal, where Daniel Pearl worked. Read His Fellowship Articles

Ammara Durrani (Pakistan) worked at the Los Angeles Times. She was the assistant editor of The News International, Pakistan’s most widely distributed English daily, and was the first Daniel Pearl Fellow at Daniel Pearl’s hometown paper. Read Her Fellowship Articles