Biography
Saleem Samad is a professional writer/journalist, an Ashoka Fellow for journalism. He has more than 25 years of experience
in investigative journalism in South Asia, reporting on conflict & peace issues and democracy. He covered the Iran-Iraq
war in 1983 and insurgency in south-east Bangladesh in 1980s & 90s. Until recently he has worked as Bangladesh correspondent
for the prestigious
TIME magazine, special correspondent for the premier English daily
The Bangladesh
Observer, correspondent for Paris based press watchdog
Reporter Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without
Borders), a Lahore-based Pakistan's prestigious
Daily TIMES, and now defunct
Tehelka.Com, a
leading investigative Indian news portal.
He has worked as trainer for small town journalists with US based non-profit organization
Academy for Educational
Development (AED),
Bangladesh Centre for Development, Journalism and Communication (BCDJC),
Bangladesh Human Rights Journalists Forum (HRJF), and
Forum of Environmental Journalist,
Bangladesh (FEJB).
While engaged with media outfits, he has worked closely with the government, NGOs and international development partners.
He has documented & edited the three major parliament elections (1991, 1996 & 2001) in Bangladesh for election
observer's alliance of NGOs.
He also worked as Fixer for several international TV networks, including British Channel 4 TV, BBC2 TV and Australian
Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) TV.
He has credit of several books he co-authored on insurgency, forced migration, political crisis of the ethnic minorities
living in hill forests of southeast Bangladesh , press freedom, election monitoring and environmental issues.
He has presented research papers at
McGill University, Montreal, Canada;
School of Oriental
& African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK;
Colorado State University, Fort Collins,
USA; RIAP,
University of Sydney, Australia;
University of Karachi, Pakistan;
Jadavpur
University, Kolkata; and
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata; India.
He is recipient of
Ashoka Fellowship by a Washington based foundation ASHOKA: Innovators for the Public.
He was elected for 3-years fellowship in 1991 for agenda-setting journalism. The fellowship was awarded as a role model
for sensitising small town journalists on key environment and development issues through holding series of participatory
workshops.
He was a Senior Fellow at the
Advocacy Institute, Washington on Ford Foundation fund in 1996. Also visiting
scholar at
International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) of
Colorado State University,
Denver, United States in 1993.
Recently New York based Human Rights Watch (HRW) awarded him with
Hellman-Hammett Grantsas a 'writer-in-exile'.
While
Amnesty International has recognised him as 'Defender of Human Rights'.
He was detained and tortured by the Bangladesh security agencies in November 2002 along with two foreign journalists
working for British Channel 4 TV for documenting on Islamic extremism & expatriate Jihadis. His arrest caused global
uproar by international media, press watchdogs and human rights groups. Bangladesh's media and civil societies were equally
outraged. He was released from prison after 55 days when the High Court intervened and overuled his incarceration.
Since his release, he was put under surveillance and routinely intimidated by security agencies. As a result he fled to
Canada and sought political asylum in November 2004. Canadian authority accepted his application as "convention"
refugee, in the shortest period ever offered by Canadian immigration authorities. His family is still living in Bangladesh
in fear of persecution.
He fluently speaks and understands English, Urdu, Hindi and Bengali, which are widely spoken in South Asia and immigrants
in the west.
