Former Wall Street Journal managing editor Paul Steiger, who now runs ProPublica, was in Karachi today. I had the good fortune of meeting him, Joel Simon and Bob Dietz from the Committee to Protect Journalists on Thursday at a group discussion on safety for the media. It was when Steiger mentioned Daniel Pearl that it hit me that I was sitting in front of STEIGER!
He said it was his first time in Pakistan but unfortunately because I had to get back to the newsroom to finish the city pages, I never got to ask him that one question we love asking foreigners: So, what do you think of this place?
We talked about how Pakistan was the deadliest place for journalists in the world. Eight of them were killed last year alone and suicide bombings have injured scores others. The intelligence agencies hound and threaten journalists. On the pages today I’ve put up a PBS picture of Hayatullah Khan who was killed for uncovering sensitive material. I’ve never worried about my safety primarily because I’m a desk person, but as a city editor I worry about the reporters on our team.
