Saleem Samad was an award-winning investigative journalist, columnist, and media rights defender. He was a correspondent of Paris-based international media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) since 1994.

He was the General Secretary of Forum for Freedom of Expression, Bangladesh (FExB), a platform of international media and digital rights defenders.

Saleem was a Special Correspondent for The Bangladesh Observer, the Daily Observer, and the Asian Age until 2021. His articles appeared in Time Asia magazine (Hong Kong), India Today, Outlook magazines in India, Times of India newspaper.

 

Saleem was a recipient of the Washington-based prestigious Ashoka Fellowship (1991-1994) for agenda-setting journalism and the Hellman-Hammett award (2005), New York.

He studied at Colorado State University (1994), Fort Collins, Colorado, USA, and also at the Advocacy Institute (1996), Washington DC, under the Ford Foundation fellowship programme.

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Saleem breathed his last on February 22, 2026, after suffering from terminal cancer. He is the first member of BJIM to embark on his eternal journey. In his passing, he also became the fraternity’s first Bondhuprotim member to be remembered in absence.