Mazhar Abbas

Who is Mazhar Abbas?

Mazhar Abbas is a Pakistani journalist. He is deputy director of ARY News Television, the bilingual news channel in Pakistan, and the secretary general of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists. He is also brother of DG ISPR Major General Ather Abbas.

Abbas, who has worked as a journalist for nearly thirty years, has received multiple threats as a result of his work. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Mohajir Rabita Council, a political group in the southern Sindh province allied with the MQM, put Abbas on its "hit list". After protesting the closing of three independent TV channels for their reporting on demonstrations against President Musharraf, Abbas was charged by police in early 2007. In May 2007, he and two other journalists found white envelopes containing bullets placed on their cars.

Working as an Agence France Presse correspondent, Abbas covered the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, South Asia Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal.

In 2007, he won an International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists. The award is given for journalists who show courage in defending press freedom in the face of attacks, threats or imprisonment. He also won the 2009 Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism.