Pakistan Christian Journalists Forum
A Christian welfare, media awareness, education, and community development organization.
Christian journalists in Pakistan reporting Christian persecution, forced conversion and blasphemy cases across the country: what happened, what the law says and what the courts did.
Forced conversion and blasphemy cases in Pakistan
Each case carries the date, the city and district, the law applied and a status that is updated as the case moves through the courts.
Cases will appear here as they are published.
Christian persecution reports from Pakistan
Reports will appear here as they are published.
Saleem Iqbal, the most bold Christian journalist in Pakistan
For more than 35 years Saleem Iqbal has reported for the Christian community of Pakistan. In 2010 he founded the Pakistan Christian Journalists Forum so that Christian persecution, forced conversion and blasphemy cases would be recorded by journalists of the community itself, accurately and by the law.
As Founding President and CEO he leads the desk that documents every case the Forum publishes, speaks for it in its statements, and trains the next generation of Christian journalists in Pakistan.
The Forum since 2010
Journalism for the Christian community of Pakistan
A Christian welfare, media awareness, education, and community development organization.
Christian persecution in Pakistan
Attacks on churches and homes, mob violence after accusations, discrimination at work and school: recorded with the date, the place, the police record and the court.
Forced conversion
Cases of Christian girls, many of them minors, taken from their homes and married after a conversion certificate: the documents, the child-marriage laws and what the courts did.
Blasphemy cases
Accusations under sections 295 and 298 of the Pakistan Penal Code against Christians: the accusation, the investigation, the trial and the verdict, reported by the law.
Why PCJF exists
Before 2010 the stories of the Christian community of Pakistan were told late, thin and by others. The Forum was founded so that a case would be recorded by a journalist of the community, at the police station and the court, on the day it happened, and followed until it ended.
The Founding President still reports from the ground himself: outside the police station where a first information report is registered, at the court where a hearing is held, in the street where a family tells what happened.
Voices of the community
The Forum's reporting begins with listening. Brick-kiln workers, sanitary workers, pastors, parents and the elderly of the Christian neighbourhoods are the sources of its case files, and they are quoted with their consent and, where safety requires, without their names.
Every member journalist of the Forum is asked to do the same in his own district: listen first, verify second, publish third.
The office holders of the Forum
Saleem Iqbal
Founded the Forum in 2010. Christian journalist for more than 35 years; reports Christian persecution, forced conversion and blasphemy cases.
Usman Masih
Senior Vice President of the Pakistan Christian Journalists Forum.
Nasir Jamil
Vice President of the Pakistan Christian Journalists Forum.
Shawn Sahotra
General Secretary of the Pakistan Christian Journalists Forum.
Tell the Forum what happened
A forced conversion, a blasphemy accusation, an attack on a church or a home, bonded labour, discrimination: the Forum records it, verifies it and reports it. Evidence can be attached; the identity of victims is protected; nothing is published without verification.
Christian journalists, students and media workers
Membership of the Pakistan Christian Journalists Forum is open to Christian journalists in Pakistan, to students of journalism and to media workers who share its aims. The Forum runs media training and mentorship for young Christian writers.