Declan Walsh, The New York Times Reporter Kicked Out Of Pakistan, Surfaces In South Africa

Declan Walsh, the New York Times’ Islamabad bureau chief who was expelled on the eve of national elections last month, has been temporarily reassigned to South Africa.

A spokeswoman for the Times said the newspaper was working to have the nine-year veteran Pakistan reporter’s visa reinstated.

“Declan is on a temporary assignment,” Danielle Rhoades Ha said in an email on Monday. “We would still like to get his Pakistani visa restored.”

She declined to give details to International Business Times about whether the U.S. paper-of-record was negotiating with the Pakistani government.

Walsh’s visa was canceled in mid-May as he reported on the election that returned Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to power, drawing immediate outcry from the Times, press freedom advocates, and fellow journalists in Pakistan.

Fasih Ahmed, the editor of Newsweek Pakistan, told IBTimes in May that he believed Walsh fell victim to a personal vendetta waged by a well-connected bureaucrat in the Interior Ministry.

On Sunday, Walsh, who has been working from London, published a story about Nelson Mandela from Qunu, South Africa. It's unclear how long he'll remain in the country.