Declan Walsh (journalist)
Declan Walsh is an Irish journalist who is the Cairo bureau chief for The New York Times. He used to be the Pakistan bureau chief for The New York Times. He has worked for The Guardian. Walsh was expelled from Pakistan in May 2013 but continued covering the country from London.[1]
Educated in Dublin, BComm International, University College Dublin and MA in Journalism from Dublin City University, Walsh started his career at The Sunday Business Post in 1998. A year later he won an Irish national media award for Social and Campaigning Journalism and moved to Kenya to work as a freelance journalist. Based in Nairobi, Walsh travelled widely across sub-Saharan Africa to report for The Independent of London and The Irish Times. In 2004 he joined The Guardian as the paper's correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan and moved to Islamabad, Pakistan. In January 2012 he moved to The New York Times as its Pakistan bureau chief.
On May 9, 2013, Walsh learned by letter that the Pakistan Ministry of Interior, citing "undesirable activities", cancelled his visas that had been valid until January 2014 and he had 72 hours to leave the country. On May 11, 2013, while he was in public reporting on Pakistan's general election and voting behaviour in Lahore, state security officials detained him in a hotel and escorted him to the airport the following morning.
The New York Times and other international media organisations protested his expulsion,[2] which was seen as counter to Pakistan's current policy on democracy and freedom of the press.[3] Pakistani news media later reported that Walsh had been placed on Pakistan's official "blacklist" and had been declared "persona non grata".[4]
In March 2014 Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif assured a visiting delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists that an "immediate review" of incident would be conducted.[5] The Sharif statement was an encouragement to the editor of the New York Times, Jill Abramson.[6]
Walsh's case was outlined in detail in "A Bullet has been chosen for you: Attacks on journalists in Pakistan", a report by Amnesty International on declining media freedom in Pakistan, which was published in April 2014.[7]
Over the past decade Walsh has written extensively on Pakistani culture, society, politics and militancy. Shortly after his expulsion he wrote a detailed account of the crumbling state of Pakistan Railways.[8] He has contributed to Granta magazine and been shortlisted for several journalism prizes including the British Press Awards and the Orwell Prize.[9]
On May 17, 2015 Walsh published a New York Times story about large-scale international diploma mill scams perpetrated by the Pakistani company Axact.[10] Following the publication of the New York Times article, Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan directed the country's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to begin inquiry into whether the company was involved in any illegal business. Following the interior minister's order, cyber crime team of FIA raided Axact's office in Karachi and Islamabad and seized co17mputers, recorded statements of employees as well taking into custody several company employees. The FIA team found and seized several blank degrees as well as fake letterhead of the US State Department. The issue was also taken up in Senate of Pakistan where Chairman of the Senate Ra17,za Rabbani constituted a committee to probe into the issue. Pakistan's tax authorities and the SECP[clarification needed] also initiated investigations into the company.
In 2017, Walsh barely escaped being arrested in Egypt. NYT publisher Arthur Sulzberger announced this event in a September 23, 2019 presentation at Brown University, which was also published as an OpEd in the paper:
"Two years ago, we got a call from a United States government official warning us of the imminent arrest of a New York Times reporter based in Egypt named Declan Walsh. Though the news was alarming, the call was actually fairly standard. Over the years, we’ve received countless such warnings from American diplomats, military leaders and national security officials.
"But this particular call took a surprising and distressing turn. We learned the official was passing along this warning without the knowledge or permission of the Trump administration. Rather than trying to stop the Egyptian government or assist the reporter, the official believed, the Trump administration intended to sit on the information and let the arrest be carried out. The official feared being punished for even alerting us to the danger.
"Unable to count on our own government to prevent the arrest or help free Declan if he were imprisoned, we turned to his native country, Ireland, for help. Within an hour, Irish diplomats traveled to his house and safely escorted him to the airport before Egyptian forces could detain him.
"We hate to imagine what would have happened had that brave official not risked their career to alert us to the threat."[11]
References
- ^ Asad Kharal (3 July 2013). "High-profile expulsion: Declan Walsh declared persona non grata". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
- ^ "Letter of protest: Foreign media want Walsh back in Pakistan". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
- ^ Basharat Peer (13 May 2013). "Declan Walsh, Expelled". The New Yorker. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
- ^ "High-profile expulsion: Declan Walsh declared persona non grata". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
- ^ "Prime minister pledges justice, security for journalists in Pakistan". Retrieved 11 August 2015.
- ^ "Pakistan Vows to Improve Journalists' Freedom and Safety". The New York Times. 20 March 2014.
- ^ "Pakistan: Journalists under Siege". Amnesty International. 30 April 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
- ^ "After Decades of Neglect, Pakistan Rusts in Its Tracks". The New York Times. 19 May 2013.
- ^ Ben Quinn. "Press awards for Guardian and Observer journalists". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
- ^ Declan Walsh (17 May 2015). "Fake Diplomas, Real Cash: Pakistani Company Axact Reaps Millions". The New York Times.
- ^ A. G. Sulzberger "The Growing Threat to Journalism Around the World" New York Times September 23, 2019