Shikder Abir Mahmud Jahan, widely known as Sam Jahan, is an award-winning journalist based in Bangladesh. He has deep-rooted experience in journalistic works within the South Asian nation.

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A journalism purebred, Sam completed his Journalism graduation at the United Kingdom's University of Bedfordshire J-School. He is also a Fellow of the UK's prestigious Chevening South Asian Journalism Programme (SAJP).

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He started a full-time journalism career in 2012 in Bangladesh after he returned from the UK where he interned as a BBC radio apprentice. He joined Daily Star, the most prestigious Bangladeshi English daily, as an Online and Multimedia Journalist.

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Later he moved to Agence France-Presse (AFP) being its sole local correspondent for Bangladesh. He was recruited as a text reporter, but since 2016, he worked as a strong ambidextrous journalist -- behind the camera as well before he left the agency for Chevening South Asia Journalism Programme (SAJP) Fellowship in 2023.

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Upon his return from the UK, Sam joined Reuters News Agency's Dhaka bureau as a Staff Video Correspondent.

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Sam is a Mobile Journalism (MoJo) enthusiast and practitioner who believes journalism is gradually becoming the platform of the 'One-man Army'. He briefly worked for the Deutsche Welle Akademie as a journalism trainer and had been a guest trainer for the Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB). He briefly worked as a journalism faculty at the national university and a resource person to the North South University's SIPG-run specialised course on Rohingya refugees. Sam is a full-time faculty member of Counter Foto, a renowned Dhaka-based photography school.

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He is also training local journalists through his #BuildingAssets J-School for Professionals -- which has later merged with Bangladeshi Journalists in International Media (BJIM)'s non-profit attempt with similar goals -- to help them hone their understanding of journalism. The school, in 2022-23, received a grant from the EMK Center in Dhaka which is affiliated with the US Embassy. The school has provided a Fellowship to 40 mid-career journalists.

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Sam covers the important stories -- regardless of politics, sports, business, natural disasters, or special events -- in the country.

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He is a top field expert on the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh's southeast. He has been researching and working closely on this issue since 2012. He won the 2018 Human Rights Press Awards and secured special merit of the same awards in 2017 for his intensified Rohingya coverage.

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He won the same HRPA merit award in 2021 for the investigative genre.

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Sam's other deep field of interest is climate-based reporting. He has been doing a series of reports -- both text and visuals -- and won the Covering Climate Now award in 2022.

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This multitasking reporter is a trained fact-checker, debunking mis/dis/mal-information, a booming window of new-age journalism, and has been working on it for the past few years.

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He is also one of the few journalists in Bangladesh who has certified Hostile Environment and First Aid training from abroad.

 

The talented reporter is also a renowned professional documentary filmmaker and story writer who worked for different international aid agencies. The United Nations, the World Bank, and WorldFish are three of his top clients for documentary filming and story writing.

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Sam has freelanced for different organisations including UN International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Voice of America, Cable News Network (CNN), Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), TRT World, Deutsche Welle, Deutsche Welle Akademie, The Australian, The Telegraph, South China Morning Post and The Daily Mail.

 

His bylines can be easily found online. It is only a Google search away.

 

He is fluent in Bengali, English, and Hindi. He can communicate in Arakani (Rohingya) and also have basic knowledge of French, Arabic and Spanish.

Sam's dream is to take the practice of journalism to the next best level.

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This smart multiplatform reporter is also a part-time musician and composer who plays multiple instruments and professionally composes music and jingles for documentaries and commercials. He has a few songs released which could be found on the internet. ##

 

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