About

Maya Mirchandani is an award winning Indian journalist who now heads the Department of Media Studies at India’s premier Liberal Arts institution, Ashoka University. Her research focuses on principles and practice of conflict journalism in an environment where free speech, debate and dissent are increasingly challenged, condemned, or silenced. Maya moved to research and teaching after over two decades with  NDTV, India’s pioneering private news network.

Maya is a recipient of the New India Foundation book fellowship 2023 to work on her book “Fathers, Sons and a Troubled Paradise: A Political Biography of the Abdullahs of Kashmir” .

Formerly as a research faculty member with the Delhi based think tank Observer Research Foundation, Maya worked extensively on ‘Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism’ (P/CVE), De-radicalization and Hate Speech with a special emphasis on countering radicalization and political mis/disinformation. As a result of this work, she is currently serving as a civil society member on the Independent Advisory Council of the Global Internet Forum for Counter Terrorism (GIFCT)

Maya continues to work as an independent journalist. Her articles appear on several news websites, and hosted a video blog called Wide Angle with Maya Mirchandani for TheWire.in which focused on national security, human rights and foreign affairs.  

She has received a B.A in History and post graduate diplomas in Mass Communications and World Politics- subjects which have influenced her award winning reportage on Indian foreign policy, conflict and national politics. Maya has won the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism twice, the Red Ink Award for Reporting on Human Rights as well as the Exchange for Media Broadcast Journalism Award for best International Affairs reporting. 

For Maya, the doors of reporting haven’t always open up peacefully. She survived a suicide bomb attack at President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s election rally in 1999, reported on 9/11 as the planes hit the World Trade Center in New York and survived pro government mobs attacking the media during the Anti-Mubarak protests in Cairo, Egypt.  From Moscow to Washington DC, Cairo to Islamabad, Freetown, Sierra Leone to Rangoon, and several places in between, Maya has traveled extensively, always in search of a good story to tell.

 Among her passions are Music and the Arts. Time permitting she learns Hindustani vocal music and takes the odd painting lesson. In fact, using the soft power of creativity is an invaluable tool of communication- one Maya wishes governments and politicians around the world would use more effectively.