National Press Club honors Pulitzer-winning team member Aoun Sahi

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 10 December 2017

Aoun Sahi received the Pride of Journalism Award from the National Press Club in Islamabad for his role in the Los Angeles Times' Pulitzer-winning coverage. The award was dedicated to his late brother and recognizes his significant contributions to journalism.

Summary

ISLAMABAD - Pakistani journalist Aoun Sahi, part of the Los Angeles Times that won a Pulitzer Award in 2016, was honored by the local press club here Sunday.

Shakeel Anjum, President National Press Club, in line with his idea of honoring journalists for their excellence, organized the ceremony.

Senior journalist Farooq Faisal Khan presented the Pride of Journalism Award to Sahi. He appreciated his work and hoped he would continue to excel.

Sahi dedicated the award to his late elder brother Assad Abbas Sahi, also a journalist, who died of a heart attack in 2015, and Mohsin Naqvi for his continual support.

The Los Angeles Times won the Pulitzer for its coverage on December 2, 2015, San Bernardino attack that claimed 14 lives and injured 24 people.

The team won the breaking news prize for its work chronicling the chaotic, fast-breaking events of December 2 and their aftermath. A Saudi Arabia national named Farook and his Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik were the attackers – and both were killed at the scene by the local administration.

The award was announced for the panel of reporters from America and overseas including Aoun Sahi from Pakistan.

Sahi is a bureau chief at Channel 24 in Islamabad and a special correspondent for LA Times. He reported on Tashfeen Malik’s radicalization process and related information from Pakistan – in Los Angeles Times for its front page stories on the global perspectives of the attack.

The Times produced three days of special front pages for the coverage, and in the days that followed, reporters continued chasing the story from San Bernardino, Washington, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, producing detailed accounts of the shooters’ backgrounds.

Sahi after several years of experience in Pakistan (The News) also started contributing stories for the Western media in 2007. He had been a regular contributor for the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Sunday Times, The Australian and Telegraph from 2007 to 2010, besides working as a stringer for  AFP from 2009-10.

From 2008-11, he worked as an associate producer and head of research team for an American film company that produced a documentary, “Without Shepherds”.

He is a 2010 Daniel Pearl/Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow. He later became a special correspondent for Times UK and Los Angeles Times. As a researcher and media trainer, Sahi has won International Labor Organization’s successive journalism awards in 2014 and 2015.

KEY POINTS:

• Aoun Sahi is a member of the Pulitzer-winning Los Angeles Times team.
• He was honored by the National Press Club in Islamabad.
• The award recognizes his contributions to journalism since 2007.
• He previously reported on major events including the San Bernardino attack.
• Sahi has won multiple journalism awards, including from the International Labor Organization.