CJA Executive Committee

Hassan Shahriar – Bangladesh
President Emeritus

Hassan Shahriar is executive editor of Bangladesh’s leading and most influential mass circulation newspaper Daily Ittefaq. He began his career with the Daily Ittefaq, working in Karachi and Dhaka. An analyst on South Asian affairs, he has covered many international events and interviewed world leaders and dignitaries. He also represents USA’s Newsweek magazine and India’s Deccan Herald newspaper. In the past, he worked with Pakistan’s Morning News, Dawn and Evening Star, Dubai’s Khaleez Times and India’s Indian Express, and Asian Age newspapers. A former President of Bangladesh’s National Press Club, Overseas Correspondents’ Association Bangladesh (OCAB) and CJA Bangladesh branch, he is President Emeritus of CJA and one of the most influential journalists in the media in Bangladesh.

Derek Ingram – UK
President Emeritus

Derek Ingram is co-founder and first President of the Commonwealth Journalists Association. He is founder of the Gemini News Service and editor 1967-93 and served on the staff of London Daily Mail 1949-66, latterly its Deputy Editor. He has covered every Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting since 1969. He is Vice-President, Royal Commonwealth Society. He has won the Commonwealth Press Union Astor Awards for furthering Commonwealth understanding 1978. Derek is author of five books on the Commonwealth, was media adviser to the Commonwealth for the Zimbabwe elections 1980; media adviser to the European Union for the South African elections 1994; and Commonwealth observer for elections in Pakistan 1993 and Malawi 1994.

Rita Payne
CJA International President

Rita Payne has worked extensively with TV and radio. She retired in 2008 as Asia Editor, BBC World News (TV) after nearly 30 years with the BBC. She is now chairman of the Commonwealth Journalists Association (UK) and has been invited to speak and chair discussions at various events in London and abroad. At BBC World TV, she was responsible for three daily news programmes with the focus on Asia. She was elected president of the CJA at its conference in Malta on Feb. 2, 2012.

Chris Cobb – Canada
Vice-president

Chris Cobb, president of the CJA Canadian branch, is a senior feature writer and reporter at the Ottawa Citizen newspaper in Canada’s capital. He is a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery and specializes in writing on politics, political communication and privacy/security issues related to post-9/11 legislation. He has taught journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada’s largest journalism school, and has led training sessions for the CJA in Nigeria, Guyana, Bangladesh and Sarawak. He wrote a book “Ego and Ink” which chronicles the creation of former media baron Conrad Black’s National Post newspaper in 1997 and Canada’s subsequent historic newspaper war.

Drito Alice – Uganda

Drito Alice is a Ugandan who has worked as a correspondent for the international press and nationally as an editor. In addition to her CJA position as regional director for eastern Africa, she is a media representative on the Independent National Commission for African Peer Review. She participated in the production of documentary films, including one on the Rwenzori Mountains and the purchase and sale of land in Kampala. She has served in key positions on boards of several media organizations including the Uganda Media Union, Uganda Journalists Association, Uganda Media Women’s Association. She is a seasoned lobbyist and advocate of press freedom, general equality, good governance, and human rights.

Murray Burt – Canada
Honourary Secretary and Treasurer

Murray Burt has been a journalist for nearly 60 years, starting as a cadet reporter in New Zealand, and doing two stints with wire services on Fleet Street before settling in Canada in the newspaper business. He is a retired managing editor of the Winnipeg Free Press (11 years), and former city and national editor of The Globe and Mail in Toronto (12 years), and before that served on smaller newspapers in Canada. He still freelance writes and edits and has just finished writing a book on the 100^th anniversary of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders of Winnipeg, a historic regiment.

He is a past-president of the CJA and has been a life member since 2003, participating in each of its conferences and CPU’s conferences since 1990. Burt is seriously committed to the Commonwealth as a world shaping institution that has huge potential to benefit the third of the world’s population which its membership represents. As part of his commitment, he is a director of the Advisory Council of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, based in New Delhi; president of Manitoba’s newly-reconstituted Royal Commonwealth Society; and has directorships in the Duke of Edinburgh Awards and the Canadian Forces Liaison Council (western Canada).

Farid Hossain – Bangladesh

Farid Hossain is chief correspondent of The Associated Press in Bangladesh and is the president of the Bangladesh branch of the CJA. He has been a journalist since 1976. He is also the senior vice-president of the National Press Club, a prestigious club of Bangladeshi journalists. He also writes for The Telegraph newspaper in Kolkata, West Bengal, India and Dhaka’s Bhorer Kagoj dailyi and Energy and Power fortnightly

Caroline Jackson – Malaysia

Caroline Jackson is chairman of the CJA Sarawak branch as well as a member of the Kuching Division Journalists Association. As the Sarawak Bureau Chief of the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama), she is also actively involved in the Information Ministry Coordination Committee at the state-level. She is a recipient of the Bernama Excellence Service Award 2005, Shell Kenyalang Press Awards 1991/1992 (Winner-News Writing English category) and AZAM Sarawak Best Development Feature Award 1999/2000 (Third prize – English category).

for secured interviews with many Asian political leaders. She also writes on politics and travel.

Lance Polu – Samoa

Past chairman of the influential Pacific Islands News Association (PINA), Lance Polu has firmly established his mark in the Samoan and Pacific community as a respected community leader. He has developed a successful monthly magazine which provides an in-depth review of the current affairs in Samoa and the Pacific region. Through his leadership, the media in Samoa have acquired more independence whilst keeping a healthy and frank relationship with governments in the region. Polu is one of two Pacific representatives on the CJA Executive Committee.

Fauzia Shaheen – Pakistan

Fauzia Shaheen is the founding editor of a monthly news magazine “Dastak (Knock) and quarterly “Liberal Pakistan” and also contributes articles to BBC’s online Urdu service. She is the founder and former President of Women Media Center Pakistan whose core function is to carry out research, training and education of media women in Pakistan. The WMC is currently involved in organizing training programs with the help of the National Endowment for Democracy, Washington, DC, USA, and US Consulate Karachi. She is the founding member of South Asian Editors Forum and has memberships with International Women Media Foundation, CJA, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, Karachi Union of Journalists and Karachi Press Club.

Newton Sibanda – Zambia

An assistant features editor, Newton Sibanda has over 15 years media experience. A journalism graduate from Lusaka’s Evelyn Hone College, Newton also holds a certificate in Diplomacy and International Studies from the Zambia Institute of Democracy and International Studies (ZIDIS) and another certificate in International Humanitarian Law from Lusaka’s National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA). Besides the Zambia Daily Mail, Newton also writes for IPS (Inter Press Service), Panos and the NORAD newspaper Bistandsaktuelt. His main areas of interest are the environment and sustainable development, particularly the areas of energy, climate change, water and sanitation, and human rights. He is committed to training and standards in journalism and sits on the training sub-committee of the Press Association of Zambia (PAZA). He is also president of the African Network of Environmental Journalists (ANEJ) Zambia. In 2005, while on a Reuters Foundation/Bellagio Forum scholarship at Green College, Oxford University, he published a paper titled, “Environmental Journalism in Zambia; the Challenges of Mainstream Media.” He is married with three children.

Mahendra Ved – India
Vice-President

Mahendra Ved is a New Delhi-based journalist. He writes a column for The New Straits Times in Kuala Lampur. He is Senior Editor with Power Politics monthly magazine and contributes to several journals. He is a regular on All India Radio and had long stints before turning to freelance with The Times of India and The Hindustan Times. He began his career with United News of India (UNI) news agency. Ved has co-authored two books, Afghan Turmoil: Changing Equations (1998) and Afghan Buzkhashi: Great Games and Gamesmen (2000). He writes on political affairs and focuses on India’s neighbourhoods. He also lectures at the Indian Institute of Mass Communications and Times of India’s Times School of Journalism.

CJA Executive Committee

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