Senior feature writer of The Pioneer’s Dehradun edition, Anupma Khanna, has become the first journalist from Uttarakhand to receive the 2014 Jefferson Fellowship of the East-West Centre,Hawaii, USA.
Khanna also received the 2014 Mary Morgan Hewett Award presented to only one female journalist from America, Asia and the Pacific every two years.
According to Fumiko Halloran, Chair, MMH Award Committee, “The Mary Morgan Hewett Fund selects awardees for achievement and excellence and seeks to provide opportunities for women journalists to travel and write about Asia, the Pacific or the United States. We hope that this award will encourage Anupma to reach the greatest heights in her career as a journalist.”
Established by the American Congress in 1960, the East West Centre is a prominent US based institution for public diplomacy in the Asia Pacific region with international governance, staffing and more than 750 partner organisations. The Jefferson Fellowships, launched in 1967, is the East-West Center’s oldest and most widely recognised seminar programme under which around 15 media persons from the USA, Asia and the Pacific Islands are awarded a fellowship to gain on-the-ground perspectives and build a professional network through an exchange visit at the East-West Centre in Honolulu followed by study tour of selected countries in the Asia Pacific-US region.
The 2014 Jefferson Fellowships programme had 15 journalists from China, USA, Pakistan, Tonga, Indonesia, Myanmar, Taiwan, Afghanistan and Philippines along with Khanna from India. The fellows explored the theme of ‘Challenges of Democratic Transition’ with travel to Hawaii, Indonesia and Myanmar in the last one month. Calling it a transformational experience Khanna said, “As a Jefferson Fellow, I spent the last one month in America, Indonesia and Myanmar doing an intensive programme of 90 meetings with prominent personalities and visits to enhance my knowledge and understanding of world issues as a journalist.”
Khanna interacted with Boediono, the Vice-President of Indonesia; Jakarta Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle’s (PDI-P) presidential candidate; Members of Indonesian and Myanmar’s Parliaments; Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of Indonesia; former director of National Intelligence of USA; Head of Islamic Sharia Agency in Aceh; Commander of US Pacific Command; top bureaucrats, social activists, policy analysts and local journalists.
“During these meetings, I delved into efforts intended to improve transparency, consolidate democracy, combat corruption, oversee elections, decentralise power, nurture inclusive governance, ensure greater civilian rule over the military, foster a pluralistic party system, reduce economic inequality and advance democratic values of Press freedom and citizen engagement. I also studied how each country has engaged the US and its Asia Pacific neighbours via political and economic ties and how this engagement has impacted democratic transition. I also explained the challenges India faces regarding good governance and political transitions,” she said.
Khanna was also selected as a panellist at the 2014 International Media Conference (IMC) in Yangon, Myanmar earlier this month. The three-day conference brought together 400 journalists from 31 countries and leaders like Aung San Suu Kyi and video participation of Hillary Clinton. Khanna was commended for her talks on ‘Transparency and
Accountability for Inclusive Governance in India’ and ‘Status of Women Journalists in India’.