Case file / Subject: Raza Dotani

The file on Raza Dotani.

Digital strategist, editorial infrastructure builder, and communications operator for media, NGOs, and civil society. Fifteen-plus years across broadcast journalism, independent publishing, frontline reporting, and digital operations: on both sides, the newsroom and the server room.

The full record →

The three pillars

What everything gets filtered through.

Truth

Verifiable facts, honest communication, and acknowledging what is not known. No fabricated data, no inflated claims, no pretending to be something he is not.

Transformation

Not grand claims. Specific, measurable change at human scale: one journalist, one platform, one website, one person, at a time.

Tolerance

Progressive humanism rooted in lived experience: anti-extremism, feminist, pro-democracy, pro-secularism, pro-digital rights.

Field report / Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa / 2014-2015

The story over the credential.

In the middle of his MSc in Journalism and Mass Communication, Raza chose field deployment to Bannu to cover the displacement crisis of Operation Zarb-e-Azb over sitting his final examinations. The degree was never awarded. The coverage was. It remains the clearest single example of how he works: the people over the institution's paperwork.

800K+

Civilians displaced, covered firsthand

Outcome: selected for the U.S. State Department's IVLP, 2015

Unwritten rules

The rules that guide the decisions.

  1. Rule 01

    Never take work from someone who cannot afford to pay. Commercial work funds non-commercial work.

  2. Rule 02

    Do not work with organizations whose values contradict progressive humanism.

  3. Rule 03

    Tell the truth about what you can and cannot do, and refer someone better when a project needs a skill you do not have.

  4. Rule 04

    Price for sustainability, not maximization. Charge enough to stay independent, not what the market will bear.

  5. Rule 05

    Build systems, not dependencies. Clients should be able to run their own infrastructure after handoff.

  6. Rule 06

    Share what is known. Free training, open resources, mentorship.