Winner: NWMI-India Fellowship

04 Apr Winner: NWMI-India Fellowship

Trainee reporter Ambika Raja of the New Indian Express in Kozhikode, Kerala, is the second recipient of the Network of Women in Media India Fellowship. The award recognizes “promising women journalists working in challenging situations, remoteareas or conflict zones, often without regular pay or proper equipment”.

To quote NWMI’s Ammu Joseph,”Ambika’s application served as an important reminder of theoften-forgotten fact that while social identity is a critical aspect ofdiversity, there are other disadvantaged groups who need to be kept inmind while promoting better representation of different sections ofsociety in the media as well as other fields of work”.

Ambika pursued a career in journalism in spite of an accident that left her paraplegic at a young age. In her own words, “Working as a disabled woman reporter in a place likeKerala, which is not a disabled-friendly state, is a herculean task.Since I can travel only by car and because public transport lacksaccess, it is impossible for me to go out for daily reporting. Hence Ifind it slightly difficult to build contacts as I do not often get tomeet sources or other journalists in person.” (source: NWMI web story)

Learn more about the award here.  A sample of Ambika’s reports may be read here.

The Network of Women in Media coordinates the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) in India.