Renowned Pakistani journalist Kamal Siddiqi on Monday received the prestigious Journalists of Courage Impact Award at the East-West Center (EWC) International Media Conference in Manila, Philippines.

The former director news at Aaj TV is the first Pakistani to receive the biennial award, which honours journalists who have “displayed exceptional commitment to quality reporting and freedom of the press, often under harrowing circumstances.”

The six other recipients include Sincha Dimara, news editor at Inside PNG; Tom Grundym, editor-in-chief and founder of Hong Kong Free Press; Alan Miller, founder of the News Literacy Project in Washington DC; Soe Myint, editor-in-chief and managing director at Mizzima Media Group in Yangon, Myanmar; John Nery, columnist and editorial consultant at Rappler in Manila; and Ana Marie Pamintuan, editor-in-chief at The Philippine Star.

In February, Siddiqi said in a statement on X that he was “humbled” at being named as one of the “Journalists of Courage and Impact” this year.

According to the four-day conference’s agenda, Siddiqi also spoke at a panel titled ‘The Whole World is Voting — Reporting in a Global Election Year’. Alongside him on the panel were seasoned journalists from Taiwan, Indonesia, India, South Korea and the Philippines.

Siddiqi is currently working at the Media Development Investment Fund as a senior programme officer focusing on South Asia. He was previously the director at the Centre for Excellence in Journalism at the Institute of Business Administration.

Prior to that, he was the editor of The Express Tribune, and has also served as the president of the EWC’s alumni association in Karachi.

He is also a fellow of the Center for Democratic Development and Rule of Law at Stanford University and a senior non-resident fellow with the Atlantic Council, according to the EWC.