Ash-har Quraishi
Encyclopedia
Ash-har Quraishi (pron. Usher Ker-AY=Shee) is an Emmy Award-winning American
broadcast
journalist
who reports for WTTW
-TV in Chicago and for the Chicago News Cooperative
. He has served as CNN
's bureau chief in Islamabad
, and was listed in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union
against the National Security Agency
.
native, Quraishi graduated from Von Steuben High School in Chicago and from the University of Illinois.
's Islamabad Bureau Chief covering news from across Pakistan
- based there within days of the 9/11 attacks. In 2001 At the age of 26 he was CNN's youngest International Bureau Chief. While at the network he reported on political and military tensions between nuclear neighbors India
and Pakistan, the hunt for Osama Bin Laden
on the volatile Pakistan/Afghanistan border. He covered the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal Reporter Daniel Pearl
- providing live reports from the port city of Karachi
. He was live from the capital of Islamabad minutes after the bombing of a Protestant church within the diplomatic enclave. Quraishi also covered the 2002 Pakistani elections and was the first western journalist to report the capture of suspected 9/11 planner Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
. Following the capture - Quraishi conducted an exclusive one-on-one interview with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf
. Quraishi was honored by the South Asian Journalists Association for his coverage of the 2002 parliamentary elections. In 2004 he was named one of the top 50 South Asian Global Achievers in Mass Media by Triangle Media Group
against the NSA for illegal wiretaps. The ACLU accused the National Security Agency
, Central Security Service
and Lt. General Keith B. Alexander - Director of the NSA of illegally wiretapping conversations and monitoring e-mails between members of its organization and members of the media - like Quraishi. At the time Quraishi was reporting on a story about "special interest" detainees who had been detained and deported even though they had not been charged with any terrorist related activities.
affiliate KCTV
based in Kansas City
. His reports have resulted in changes in police complaint procedures and changes in recruitment policies for the Missouri National Guard. His report on intimidation inside local police stations earned him a 2007 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting. His investigations have been honored by the Society of Professional Journalists
, The Kansas City Press Club, The South Asian Journalists Association and The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
. In 2010 he was awarded two National Headliner Awards
for his reporting and was also an Investigative Reporters and Editors
(IRE) award finalist. He's is a four-time Emmy winner and ten-time nominee for feature, specialty and investigative reporting. Since joining KCTV5 He's exposed sexual predators online, weak sentencing for child pornography convicts, serious security vulnerabilities in airport security and the ability of bad physicians to move from state to state leaving behind serious malpractice histories. Quraishi was investigated by the Transportation Security Administration
under the Department of Homeland Security for a series of reports exposing vulnerabilities in aviation security. The TSA
investigation was later dropped and the series earned Quraishi a 2009 Edward R. Murrow Award. He left KCTV in December 2009.
and the Chicago News Cooperative
announced the hiring of Quraishi as a multimedia correspondent and content producer who will alternate working for WTTW and the CNC each week. His duties will include reporting for WTTW's "Chicago Tonight" program and its website, writing for the Chicago News Cooperative's pages in the New York Times, writing for the cooperative's website and helping to train cooperative employees in using video.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
broadcast
Broadcast
Broadcast or Broadcasting may refer to:* Broadcasting, the transmission of audio and video signals* Broadcast, an individual television program or radio program* Broadcast , an English electronic music band...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
who reports for WTTW
WTTW
WTTW channel 11 is one of three Public Broadcasting Service member public television stations serving the Chicago, Illinois market; the others are WYCC and WYIN. WTTW began broadcasting on September 6, 1955 and it is owned and operated by Window to the World Communications, Inc., a not-for-profit...
-TV in Chicago and for the Chicago News Cooperative
Chicago News Cooperative
The Chicago News Cooperative is a not-for-profit, Chicago-based cooperative that was created to produce news stories about Chicago for various media organizations...
. He has served as CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
's bureau chief in Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
, and was listed in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
against the National Security Agency
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...
.
Early life and education
A ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
native, Quraishi graduated from Von Steuben High School in Chicago and from the University of Illinois.
CNN
Quraishi served as CNNCNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
's Islamabad Bureau Chief covering news from across Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
- based there within days of the 9/11 attacks. In 2001 At the age of 26 he was CNN's youngest International Bureau Chief. While at the network he reported on political and military tensions between nuclear neighbors India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Pakistan, the hunt for Osama Bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
on the volatile Pakistan/Afghanistan border. He covered the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal Reporter Daniel Pearl
Daniel Pearl
Daniel Pearl was an American journalist who was kidnapped and killed by Al-Qaeda.At the time of his kidnapping, Pearl served as the South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, and was based in Mumbai, India. He went to Pakistan as part of an investigation into the alleged links between...
- providing live reports from the port city of Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
. He was live from the capital of Islamabad minutes after the bombing of a Protestant church within the diplomatic enclave. Quraishi also covered the 2002 Pakistani elections and was the first western journalist to report the capture of suspected 9/11 planner Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is a Kuwait-born militant in U.S. custody in Guantánamo Bay for alleged acts of terrorism, including mass murder of civilians....
. Following the capture - Quraishi conducted an exclusive one-on-one interview with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...
. Quraishi was honored by the South Asian Journalists Association for his coverage of the 2002 parliamentary elections. In 2004 he was named one of the top 50 South Asian Global Achievers in Mass Media by Triangle Media Group
NSA Wire Tapping
Quraishi was one of several journalists whose names were listed in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties UnionAmerican Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
against the NSA for illegal wiretaps. The ACLU accused the National Security Agency
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...
, Central Security Service
Central Security Service
The Central Security Service is an agency of the United States Department of Defense, established in 1972 by a Presidential Directive to promote full partnership between the National Security Agency and the Service Cryptologic Elements of the United States Armed Forces.-Organization:The blue...
and Lt. General Keith B. Alexander - Director of the NSA of illegally wiretapping conversations and monitoring e-mails between members of its organization and members of the media - like Quraishi. At the time Quraishi was reporting on a story about "special interest" detainees who had been detained and deported even though they had not been charged with any terrorist related activities.
KCTV
Quraishi next was Chief Investigative Reporter for CBSCBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
affiliate KCTV
KCTV
KCTV channel 5 is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Kansas City Metropolitan Area that is licensed to the Missouri side. Owned by the Meredith Corporation, the station is sister to MyNetworkTV affiliate KSMO-TV and the two share facilities on Shawnee Mission Parkway KCTV channel 5 is...
based in Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
. His reports have resulted in changes in police complaint procedures and changes in recruitment policies for the Missouri National Guard. His report on intimidation inside local police stations earned him a 2007 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting. His investigations have been honored by the Society of Professional Journalists
Society of Professional Journalists
The Society of Professional Journalists , formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is one of the oldest organizations representing journalists in the United States. It was established in April 1909 at DePauw University, and its charter was designed by William Meharry Glenn. The ten founding members of...
, The Kansas City Press Club, The South Asian Journalists Association and The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences or NATAS was created in 1955 to advance the arts and sciences of television. Headquartered in New York, NATAS's membership is national and the organization has local chapters around the country....
. In 2010 he was awarded two National Headliner Awards
National Headliner Awards
The National Headliner Awards are a prize given out by Press Club of Atlantic City since 1935. Both broadcast journalism and print journalism are recognized, in separate categories.-External links:*...
for his reporting and was also an Investigative Reporters and Editors
Investigative Reporters and Editors
Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that focuses on the quality of investigative reporting. Formed in 1975, it presents the IRE Awards and holds conferences and training classes for journalists. Its headquarters is in Columbia, Missouri, at the University of...
(IRE) award finalist. He's is a four-time Emmy winner and ten-time nominee for feature, specialty and investigative reporting. Since joining KCTV5 He's exposed sexual predators online, weak sentencing for child pornography convicts, serious security vulnerabilities in airport security and the ability of bad physicians to move from state to state leaving behind serious malpractice histories. Quraishi was investigated by the Transportation Security Administration
Transportation Security Administration
The Transportation Security Administration is an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that exercises authority over the safety and security of the traveling public in the United States....
under the Department of Homeland Security for a series of reports exposing vulnerabilities in aviation security. The TSA
TSA
TSA most often refers to:* Transportation Security Administration, in the United States Department of Homeland Security* Tourette Syndrome Association, advocacy organizationbut may also refer to:- Organizations :...
investigation was later dropped and the series earned Quraishi a 2009 Edward R. Murrow Award. He left KCTV in December 2009.
WTTW and the Chicago News Cooperative
On March 16, 2010, Chicago public television station WTTWWTTW
WTTW channel 11 is one of three Public Broadcasting Service member public television stations serving the Chicago, Illinois market; the others are WYCC and WYIN. WTTW began broadcasting on September 6, 1955 and it is owned and operated by Window to the World Communications, Inc., a not-for-profit...
and the Chicago News Cooperative
Chicago News Cooperative
The Chicago News Cooperative is a not-for-profit, Chicago-based cooperative that was created to produce news stories about Chicago for various media organizations...
announced the hiring of Quraishi as a multimedia correspondent and content producer who will alternate working for WTTW and the CNC each week. His duties will include reporting for WTTW's "Chicago Tonight" program and its website, writing for the Chicago News Cooperative's pages in the New York Times, writing for the cooperative's website and helping to train cooperative employees in using video.