The 2017 Daniel Pearl Fellows, Nicholas Cheng of Malaysia and Salman Yousafzai of Pakistan filled The Steve Allen Theater on Aug. 17 with insight and life experience on being a journalist in a Muslim-majority country.

Established in 2003, The Daniel Pearl Fellowship is a program in partnership with Alfred Friendly Press Partners dedicated to exploring and improving the world of journalism. The program hosts journalists invited from Muslim-majority countries for five months as they work at major U.S. newsrooms and publications and at The Jewish Journal for one week. These opportunities are there to broaden their understanding of American journalism and offer new skills to their journalistic career.

“I’ve learned to see stories from different angles, dig into investigative journalism,” Yousafzai said.

Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of TRIBE Media/Jewish Journal Rob Eshman moderated the discussion at the Los Angeles Press Club between Cheng and Yousafzai centered around their challenges as a journalist. They were asked questions to which they reflected on their career and the risks they were taking. Cheng spoke about being a Malaysian journalist who has to be cautious with what is written about his country’s government and their officials.

Yousafzai, however, highlighted the terrifying possibility of being murdered for what is written in a publication in Pakistan. The Daniel Pearl Fellows’ experience allowed for the audience to see how dangerous being a journalist in their country is and understand their strategies to avoid harmful conflict.

Despite being from different countries, Cheng and Yousafzai both had a mutual feeling of respect and love for journalism and were willing to continue to pursue the field. They brought a new respect and appreciation for journalism and those who actively participate and fight for the news seeking and ground breaking field.

“When you invest in one journalist, you invest in one hundred thousand readers,” Judea Pearl said.