Zaffar Abbas

Zaffar Abbas is the editor of Dawn, Pakistan’s leading English language newspaper. Starting in 1981, he worked as a junior reporter for one of the sister publications of Dawn. In 1988, he moved to the Herald, a prestigious Pakistani monthly magazine, as its leading investigative reporter. Four years later, he joined the BBC World as one of its Pakistan correspondents in Islamabad. In 2006, Abbas left the BBC to re-join Dawn group and, four years later, was named Dawn’s editor. In 2015, he was elected as the chairman of ‘Editors for Safety,’ a network of Pakistani newspapers and television editors, which campaigns in support of journalists who come under verbal or physical attack. He is a member of the Executive Board of the International Press Institute (IPI). He is also on the Board of Editors of the Asian News Network (ANN), a conglomerate of over 22 newspapers of South and South-East Asia, which largely focuses on news collaboration. Abbas is the recipient of CPJ’s 2019 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award and is on Reuters Institute's Advisory Board.