Muhammad Aftab Alam is a law and policy expert with more than twenty years of work experience in the fields of rule of law, right to information and transparency, freedom of expression and media development, and governance and legislative reforms. He has been part of the efforts to forge multi-stakeholder alliances and networks such as the Alliance for Diversity and Pluralism in Media (ADPM), Pakistan Coalition on Media Legal reforms (PCMLR), Coalition on Right to Information (CRTI), the Pakistan Journalists Safety Coalition (PJSC) and Pakistan Coalition on Ethical Journalism (PCEJ). He is members of international networks such as FOIAdvocates Network, ILAW Network, International Media Lawyers Association (IMLA) and South Asia Media Lawyers Association (SAMLA). Having graduation in law- from International Islamic University (IIU) Islamabad – and public policy- from the Central European University (CEU), Mr. Alam is enrolled as Advocate of High Court with the Islamabad Bar Council. Mr. Alam is leading several petitions in the courts for realization of citizens’ constitutional and human rights through strategic and public interest litigation.
As a researcher, Mr. Alam has contributed to number of research publications including, but not limited to: UN Action Plan on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity in Pakistan: 10-year review of influence and impact (2022); Challenges of Viability, Sustainability and Resilience of Indie Digital Journalism Platforms in Pakistan (2022); Decent Work in Pakistani Media: An Assessment of Pakistan’s Labour Laws and The Impact on media workers (2021); Pakistan’s PECA Problem: Curbing Speech, Not Crime (2021); Regulatory Repressions Amid Pandemic: State of Digital Media / Journalism Report (2021); Narrative of Marginalization: reporting religious minorities in Pakistani Media (2019); Coercive Censorship, Muted Dissent: Pakistan Descent into Silence – Pakistan Media Legal Review 2019; Full Open Law, Half-Closed Government: An Assessment of Proactive Disclosure by Public Bodies (2019); Impeding Transparency, Accountability and Access to Information: Inactive Government on Proactive Disclosure (2018); Modernizing Media Law in Pakistan: a review of legal framework governing media (2017); Model Broadcast Law; and Model Journalists’ Safety Law (2017).
As a manager, Mr. Alam has worked with/for a number of international organizations including Internews Network (in Afghanistan and Pakistan), Internews Europe, Denmark-based International Media Support (IMS), Democracy Reporting International (DRI), Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) and the American Centre for Solidarity with Labour (SC) in different capacities. As a founding director and head of the Institute for Research, Advocacy and Development (IRADA), Mr. Alam implemented a string of projects funded by UNESCO, Open Society Foundation (OSF), American Center for Labor Solidarity (ACLS), SAARC Human Resource Development Centre, Plan International, International Media Support (IMS), Democracy Reporting International (DRI), and International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).