Newsweek Pakistan

Newsweek Pakistan
Cover of the Nov. 22 & 29, 2010, issue
Editor Fasih Ahmed
Publisher Iqbal Z. Ahmed
Year founded 2010
First issue 5 September 2010 (2010-09-05)
Company AG Publications
Country Pakistan
Based in Lahore
Language English
Website Newsweek Pakistan
ISSN 2226-7492

Newsweek Pakistan is published by AG Publications, a company wholly owned by Associated Group (AG), under license from The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC. The licensing agreement with AG Publications follows similar publishing alliances for Newsweek editions. Newsweek's Asia Pacific edition, published in Hong Kong, has been available in Pakistan for over 50 years. Newsweek Pakistan replaced the Asia Pacific edition, and carries reportage, analysis and opinion on Pakistan in addition to the content featured in the international edition. The Pakistan edition draws upon both its own editorial staff and Newsweek’s international network of correspondents.

Fasih Ahmed, who has reported for the Wall Street Journal and Newsweek, is the editor of Newsweek Pakistan. Ahmed won a New York Press Club award in 2008 for Newsweek’s coverage of the assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto. In 2017, Ahmed received widespread local and international criticism for sarcastic remarks he made on Twitter about child sex abuse, resulting in Newsweek announcing that it was reviewing its licensing arrangement and association with Newsweek Pakistan.[1]

History

AG launched its first media enterprise, Newsweek Pakistan, in August 2010.[2] The cover of Newsweek Pakistan's first issue, captioned "The World's Bravest Nation: Pakistan," showed a boy displaced by the 2010 summer floods in Pakistan, the worst natural disaster in the history of the country. The magazine donated net proceeds from the sale of this debut issue to the U.N.'s World Food Program.

The debut issue also featured an exclusive interview with Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan,[3] and also included an article on Pakistan by Ron Moreau, author of the October 2007 Newsweek cover story, "The Most Dangerous Nation in the World is not Iraq. It's Pakistan."[4]

The magazine is produced by AG Publications under license from The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company, LLC, and is edited by Fasih Ahmed, who has written for The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek International, and who was the inaugural Daniel Pearl fellow. The debut issue featured Ahmed’s cover essay, “The World’s Bravest Nation,” which was also published online by Newsweek.

Some of the most important voices in Pakistan, and abroad, have written for Newsweek Pakistan. Among them: former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, highly regarded judicial activist and author Aitzaz Ahsan, ambassadors Sherry Rehman and Husain Haqqani, nuclear scientist A. Q. Khan, and former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark.

In order to retain editorial independence, Newsweek Pakistan does not accept government advertising and takes special care to highlight for its readers any actual or perceived conflicts of interest between its news coverage and its corporate interests. Newsweek Pakistan operates on the principle of fear- and favor-free journalism.

On Facebook and Twitter, Newsweek Pakistan provides real-time updates and alerts to over quarter million of its social media subscribers.

The newsmagazine has hosted and sponsored events and seminars. On 2 April 2010, in Lahore, Newsweek Pakistan hosted an exclusive breakfast for Abdullah Gül, the then-President of the Republic of Turkey with the chief minister of Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif.

The newsmagazine’s advisory board comprises Qazi Shaukat Fareed, who has worked with the U.N. for over 20 years; Parvez Hassan, lawyer and environmentalist; Ayesha Jalal, professor of history at Tufts University; and David Walters, former governor of Oklahoma.

Controversy

Newsweek Pakistan attracted international attention in January 2018, when its editor, Fasih Ahmed, made comments about child-rape widely perceived to be insensitive and offensive.[5] Ahmed tweeted that child sex abuse 'sometimes leads to great art'.[6] He later apologised, claiming that his tweets were the product of anger, and were misinterpreted. However, other tweets by Ahmed also drew widespread criticism. In one, Ahmed said that rape by Tom Cruise was 'everyone's dream come true'.[7] Another tweet by Fasih Ahmed asked a detractor if she was raised 'on the healthy cum of your male family members'.[8]

Various local and international media organisations reported on the Tweets, including the Washington Times, Dawn, Geo, Samaa, Capital TV, Breitbart and Business Insider.

As a consequence of the tweets, Ahmed was removed from the board of the Lahore Literary Festival.[9] Newsweek also announced it was reviewing its licensing arrangement with Newsweek Pakistan, although no action has yet been taken and Ahmed remains editor.[10] A petition on Change.org to have Fasih Ahmed fired from Newsweek Pakistan gained close to 2,500 signatures.

References

  1. ↑
  2. ↑ "Top Ten Most Popular Magazines in Pakistan 2015 – 2016". Read Pakistan. 28 September 2015. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
  3. ↑ "Western Hypocrisy." Fasih Ahmed interviews AQ Khan. Newsweek.
  4. ↑ "Where the Jihad Lives Now," Ron Moreau. Newsweek; 20 October 2007.
  5. ↑
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