CV

SALMAN SIDDIQUI

Website: http://salmansid.com/

Twitter: @salmansid

WORK EXPERIENCE:

TURKEY

Anadolu Agency/ Basmuhabir (Senior Journalist)/ October 2014 - present

     Main responsibilities include editing stories and handling pitches from Turkey, Europe, Africa and Asia regions for the English service of semi-official Turkish state news wire, Anadolu Agency. This is a high-pressure job where the task is to get stories out quickly that are not only accurate and free from perils of libelous content, but also the copy is expected to meet high standards of professional English news style guidelines that satisfy the requirements of AA's global clientele. AA's news coverage is based not only on AA's dedicated correspondents for the English service in the field, but also the challenge for editors is to glean news-worthy information from translations of AA's Turkish/Arabic services. On average, I meet the challenge of editing between 15 to 30 stories per 8-hour shift, every day.       

QATAR

Gulf Times/ Staff Reporter/ February 2013- September 2014

The Gulf Times, established in 1978, is Qatar’s oldest and leading English newspaper. As one of the main reporters on the national news desk, I covered a wide range of beats for the paper, including diplomacy, culture, arts and business. I covered issues of global importance such as plight of migrant workers in Qatar. I also had dozens of front-page byline stories for covering numerous world leaders, business deals and internationally-renowned artists.

U.S. McClatchy Media/ Special Correspondent/ June 2014 – September 2014

The McClatchy Company is a publicly traded American publishing company based in California. Although I worked only for a few months for McClatchy while I was in Qatar, I have the experience of writing for the U.S. media where my dispatches appeared in 29 regional newspapers in 15 states.

PAKISTAN

The Express Tribune/ Investigative Reporter/ March 2010 till Nov 2012

The Express Tribune is an English language daily published by the Express Media Group in collaboration with the International Herald Tribune. I was one of the main investigative reporters of the group based in Karachi where I produced over 300 in-depth reports. Although my main focus was on security-related issues, specifically terrorism and crime, I also produced numerous reports on political, social and health-related issues. I also did extensive coverage of disasters such as the ‘super floods’ that wreaked havoc in rural Sindh/Balochistan provinces during 2010 and 2011, and also ventured as far as Waziristan to get the facts right.

Agence France-Presse/ Stringer/ May 2012 till Jan 2013

I worked for AFP, the international Paris-based news wire agency, as a stringer based in Karachi. My job included giving quick news updates on major incidents in the mega city and the Sindh province region. I was fully responsible for news in Sindh on weekends and assisted the AFP correspondent for the region during his weekdays. Whether it was a major terrorist act like a bomb blast or a drive-by shooting incident involving a UN official, I met the challenge of breaking the news first for AFP.

Dawn daily/Dawn.com/Senior Reporter/ January 2008 till March 2010

Dawn is the biggest English media group in Pakistan. During this period my responsibilities included producing investigative stories, daily reporting and occasionally I also worked as a ‘shift in-charge’ responsible for managing the online news desk. My reporting assignments took me all across Pakistan, including to rural Sindh and Punjab provinces, and the Pakistani capital Islamabad. Some of my stories were also aired on the media group’s TV channel, DawnNews. I also produced a wide range of multimedia content, including picture galleries and audio/visual slideshows.     

Dawn daily/Senior Subeditor and Reporter/ December 2006 till January 2008

During this period, I was assigned on the main national desk of the daily Dawn newspaper that was responsible for editing the front, back and national pages. Apart from editing stories and supervising an assigned page during the layout phase, I was also writing features and stories for the metropolitan and weekly magazine sections of the newspaper.

Dawn.com/ Content Coordinator cum Subeditor-March 2005 till November 2006

This was the period when the new layout of the news portal Dawn.com which we see today was being designed. The work scope involved editing news; drawing up poll questions; managing daily and weekly e-newsletters; brainstorming/planning/writing reports for the new version of the site and managing the epaper (epaper.dawn.com).

SPIDER/Reporter-June2003 till November 2004

Spider was the first Internet and Telecom industry focused monthly magazine coming out of Pakistan. My work scope involved writing news features, conducting interviews, drawing up an outline for the magazine’s website www.spider.tm and blogging. Major accomplishments included writing more than 40 features, cover page stories and interviewing various diversified personalities during this period.

Freelance writer

I have also written features for monthly investigative news magazines in Pakistan such as Herald, Newsline and popular online sites such as Chowk.com. I have also contributed to the Tolonews portal in Afghanistan.  

TV EXPERIENCE:

In June 2014, I appeared on the U.K.’s Channel 4 and the American news network NBC from Doha as an analyst on militant groups in news packages about the release of five Taliban leaders in Qatar in exchange for the American soldier, Bowe Bergdahl. In Pakistan too, I frequently spoke as an expert and also gave ‘audio beepers’ during live transmissions at key events in Karachi to local channels. Earlier, my stories were also featured on Dawn News flagship programme News Eye during the days when the channel did broadcasts in English. Also, I gave live updates to the U.K.’s Sky News network when the Mehran naval base in Karachi came under attack in 2011.

EDUCATION:

GERMANY

Multimedia and Online Journalism certificate   / Berlin/ 2008

     I did a two-month long journalism course at the International Institute for Journalism.

PAKISTAN

Bachelors of Science/ Karachi/ 2004  

I have a four-year graduation degree in science from the University of Karachi.

Intermediate college/ 2000

I cleared my HSC exams from DJ Science College in Karachi.                   

Matriculation high School/ 1998

I passed my SSC exams from Happy Home School in Karachi.

KUWAIT

Carmel School Kuwait/ 1985-1990

I did my primary education at an Indian convent school in Kuwait - a country which I and my family left after the breakout of the first Gulf War of 1990.

Career Milestones:

• As a member of the editors team on the main desk of Anadolu Agency’s English service based in the Turkish capital Ankara since October 2014, I have closely observed and edited stories about key events in Turkey's recent history, including the 2014 Kobani violence; the 2015 general election; interim Cabinet formation, anti-militant crackdowns, the sliding down of the Turkish lira etc. among several hundreds of stories; I was also part of the news desk that covered the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France, the Iran nuclear deal with Western powers etc.; and continue to edit stories about the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe.
• Some prominent personalities I have interviewed or covered events about them for Gulf Times in Qatar included: music composer Yanni, US Commander Naval Forces Central Command (NavCent) Vice Admiral John Miller, British artist Damien Hirst, U.K.’s Foreign Secretary (then Defence Secretary) Philip Hammond, Master Chef Gordon Ramsay, senior Hamas leader Khaled Mishal, Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty, French climate change expert Nicolas Hulot, U.K.’s Prince Charles, (now ex) Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta, WWE superstar wrestler R-Truth, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Kristian Vigenin, President of the Swiss Council of States (Senate) Filippo Lombardi, the late fashion icon L’Wren Scott, Qatar Airways CEO Al-Baker, ex-Afghan president Hamid Karzai, ex-Tunisian president Dr. Moncef and Committee to Protect Journalists Executive Director Joel Simon among many others.
• I was in Doha at a key moment in its history, where I witnessed (and reported on) Shiekh Hamad handing over his rein to his son Shiekh Tamim, who is the current Emir of Qatar. This power transition took place after an 18-year gap in Qatar.
• I travelled all the way to Colombo, Sri Lanka in December 2013 to investigate abuses in the recruitment of migrant workers for Qatari companies.
• Between 2007 and 2012, I reported on almost all suicide bomb blast and terrorism related cases that took place in Karachi, Pakistan. My reporting has not been limited to witnessing the horrific scenes at the site of the attack, but also I’ve written dozens of follow up stories about progress into investigations of those cases. Also, I covered numerous high-profile political events in Pakistan during the same time period.
• I was the first Pakistani journalist to produce a multimedia slideshow series called Urban Journeys at the news portal Dawn.com in Pakistan. This series was a runners up at the UN’s World Summit Youth Award.

COMPUTER SKILLS:

• Microsoft Office
• Adobe Photoshop
• Final Cut Pro
• Adobe Audition
• Audacity
• Web Content Management in IBM’s Websphere portal
• Wordpress
• QuarkExpress

LANGUAGE SKILLS:

• Excellent/Native-like proficiency in written and spoken English
• Native proficiency in written and spoken Urdu
• Mid-level proficiency in spoken Hindi
• Mid-level proficiency in reading Arabic/ Beginner-level proficiency in spoken Arabic
• Elementary-level working proficiency in Turkish

OTHERS:

• Photography/Shooting videos using digital and manual SLR cameras

ONLINE PRESENCE:

Personal website and blog:

http://salmansid.com/

Twitter page: 

http://twitter.com/salmansid

Linkedin page:

http://pk.linkedin.com/pub/salman-siddiqui/1/697/88b

Channel 4 news clip in which I appear as an expert

http://www.channel4.com/news/bowe-bergdahl-taliban-afghanistan-us-soldier-release-video

NBC news clip in which I appear as an expert

http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-news/55362967

Express Tribune newspaper articles links:

http://tribune.com.pk/author/138/salman-siddiqui/14/

Sample of Dawn newspaper article links:

http://archives.dawn.com/author?post_author=by%20Salman%20Siddiqui

Flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/salmansiddiqui/