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Yusuf Jameel, is journalist of South Asia. Formerly a correspondent for the BBC, he is currently the Special Correspondent with Indian global newspaper The Asian Age and its sister publication Deccan Chronicle based in restive Kashmir besides regularly contributing to the New York Times, Time magazine and the Voice of America.
For journalists in Indian Kashmir every day has been a struggle ever since the separatist campaign in the disputed Himalayan State burst into a major violence in 1989. Though the situation for them has improved after the key characters of the conflict realized the role of the media and came out of their ideals and illusions, the anamnesis of the past events is painful.
Journalists in Kashmir have endured undeclared censorship, imprisonment, attempts on their lives, or the assassination of a close colleague as a result of their efforts to report on the news, the government and the militants candidly. Some reporters landed in prison or their graves for writing the truth. Yusuf Jameel is one of the victims of this bigotry. Srinagar-based newspapers have frequently been forced to suspend publication under pressure from the various warring parties. And numerous local journalists have survived abductions, including Yusuf Jameel.
Jameel was born in Srinagar, Kashmir, on March 3, 1958,in a middle class Muslim Kashmiri family whose ancestry is rooted in Turkey. Both his father Gulam Rasool Shah and grandfather taught in government schools. He had his early schooling at Srinagar's Islamia High School and Sri Pratap Higher Secondary School and held a Bachelors Degree from Amar Singh College.
After graduating in Political Science from the University of Kashmir, Jameel started working as a freelance journalist for a couple of years. His work appeared mainly in Khaleej Times, Munsif (Hyderabad-India) and Blitz (Bombay) Soon he joined Srinagar Urdu newspaper Aftab and, in 1983, The Telegraph, an English newspaper founded by well-known Indian editor and author M.J.Akbar. During his days with Calcutta-based Ananda Bazaar Patrika Ltd, the publishers of The Telegraph, he also contributed regularly to sister publications Sunday (English) and Ravivar (Hindi).
Towards the end of 1993, he shifted to The Asian Age, also founded and edited by M.J.Akbar. The newspaper is now owned by Hyderabad-based Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited which also publishes Deccan Chronicle, the largest circulated English daily in south India and the third largest English newspaper in India in terms of readership and circulation, Financial Chronicle and Andra Bhumi. In 1984, Jameel began working simultaneously for the BBC, Reuters and Time magazine. In recent times, his work has also appeared in The National, Abu Dhabi and on Aljazeera.net
His fearless and objective reporting on Kashmir won him acclaim in the journalistic and political circles in India and beyond although it also won him enemies. As a reporter for the BBC and Reuters -news organizations widely respected as nonpartisan in Kashmir- Jameel was a conspicuous target.
In 1994, he married Nusrat Amin, daughter of Kashmiri lawyer and political activist Muhammad Amin Butt. They have three daughters Umme Kulthum, Saalihah Zainab and Fatima Zahra
Awards
In 1989, he won India's Mulk Raj Saraf Award for Best Reporter of the Year
In 1996 he was one of five journalists to receive an International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists.
In 2006, he won the first Best Journalist/Writer award instituted by the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA).
In February 2011, received Ahad Zargar Memorial award for his outstanding contribution as a journalist. The award given annually in recognition of excellent work done in the fields of literature, journalism, public and social services has been instituted by the Ahad Zargar Research Foundation after well-known Kashmiri Sufi poet Abdul Ahad
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