The coverage of civil-military tensions in the South Asian country has earned Pakistani journalist Cyril Almeida the International Press Institute's (IPI) 2019 World Press Freedom Hero. Almeida has been at the centre of a marked increase in attacks on media freedom in Pakistan, facing treason charges, travel restrictions and other forms of intimidation for his reporting on tensions between Pakistan's military and its civilian leaders.

In a statement released today, the he Vienna-based IPI said Almeida was awarded for "his tenacious coverage of the Pakistani state's patronage of militant groups". 
Journalists and editors told Al Jazeera that.Pakistan's military government has subjected media organisations and newspapers to a sustained campaign of outright censorship, financial sanctions, disruptions to their distribution networks and intimidation since last year. Almeida continued to report on these issues, and often tackled the question of the military's role in politics in his weekly column at Dawn, Pakistan's premier English language newspaper.