Samiullah Mahdi

Samiullah Mahdi was recently the Bureau Chief of Radio Azadi (Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty) in Afghanistan. He was previously Director of PAYK Investigative Journalism Center and Strategic Advisor to Tolonews. He worked as C.E.O. of Khurshid TV from 2013-2014 and as Director of News and Current Affairs at 1TV from 2009-2013. He has also been an op-ed contributor to major Afghan and international newspapers and magazines. In 2012, Mr. Mahdi was awarded ICFJ’s Knight International Journalism Award for his “excellent and courageous reporting.” Mahdi holds a BA from the School of Law and Political Science of Kabul University (2009) and a MA in International Relations from the University of Massachusetts Boston as a Fulbright Scholar (2016). He recently taught at the Policy and Public Administration School of Kabul University. He was a 2021 Fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, where he published a paper on the media landscape in Afghanistan, and the threats to and opportunities for press freedom in the region.