NASIM FEKRAT
Nasim Fekrat is a freelance journalist, photographer, and the director of several news reporting and training organizations he has founded to help bring Afghan journalism into the internet age. Publishing in English and Persian, Nasim’s work has appeared on BBC Persian, Radio Free Europe, his own news sites, and publications run by both NATO and the United Nations. As the leader of a small movement of young journalists advocating for free press in Afghanistan, Nasim has been threatened, had his website hacked, been forced to write using a pseudonym, and driven into exile. For his writing and media training efforts, Reporters Without Borders awarded Nasim the freedom of expression award in 2005, and in 2008, Nasim accepted the Freedom of Expression award given by Italian organization ISF (Information Safety and Freedom) on behalf of himself and Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh, a journalist placed on death row in Northern Afghanistan for allegedly distributing materials critical of Islam. Last year, Nasim was placed in charge of the communication and information committee for the Human Rights and Democracy Center in Kabul. He also serves as the director of Afghan Press (afghanpress.org, afghanpress.af), an online newspaper in two languages dedicated to bringing scholars together to discuss and distribute news in Afghanistan’s more remote villages, which are rarely represented in the international media. He also writes for kabuli.org and serves as the director of the Association of Afghan Blog writers (afghanpenlog.com, afghanpenlog-en.blogspot.com).
