South Asia Tribune
The South Asia Tribune is one of the prominent online journals. It focus on the political, social, regional and other issues of South Asia. A prominent US-based Pakistani journalist, Shaheen Sehbai, is the founder of this journal.
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Shaheen Sehbai
Shaheen Sehbai is the founder of the South Asia Tribune. He is a veteran Pakistani journalist based in America, who has worked as a reporter for the Dawn newspaper in Washington D.C. and later as an editor for The News International in Islamabad. On February 16, 2002, Sehbai let a story run that exposed Pakistani government ties to terrorist bombings in India (a story that also ran in The Washington Post and The International Herald Tribune by the work of the reporter, not by Sehbai). The government immediately stopped its advertisements in The News International, and put inordinate pressure on the company to fire those involved in the creation and publication of the story.
Because of the Daniel Pearl situation at the time, the Pakistani government was anxious to crush any rumors of connections to terrorism, and made a great deal of effort to censor any reporting that would suggest them. The News International was under constant pressure to tone down any stories that might show any sort of government corruption, and Sehbai had repeatedly fallen into trouble or punishment for running exposés. After the February 16th article, though, the government forced Sehbai to resign through immense financial pressure on The News International, and Sehbai was later accused of armed robbery by an employee of the Pakistani army headquarters. He eventually left for the United States, becoming an expatriate out of disgust for the Musharraf government.
Start of South Asia Tribune
Sehbai returned to America and started a web-based newspaper, The South Asia Tribune, in which he reported many cases of government and military corruption under Pakistan's Musharraf administration. Sehbai also became a source of inspiration to all journalists.
Closing
In 2005 Sebhai sent a letter to the newspaper's readers and viewers, announcing that he was closing the website of The South Asia Tribune after three years of service.
Restart of South Asia Tribune
Two years after the website's closing, another team relaunched The South Asia Tribune on 28 October 2007.
