Don't Underestimate the Power of women journalists

There were landmark stories, landmark results due to the events, but not many people remember the faces of those landmark stories, events and the people behind the results that took place. Asha Jhabakh, Dishya Sharma and Annu Vishnu explore those hidden faces of the industry who have spelled a magic with their pens. 

News is something of an obsession in India. We tune into the daily happenings in our country and around the world through all mediums- print, magazines and most of all TV, with all the fervour and passion usually reserved for cricket and politics, but maybe that’s because those subjects dominate our news.

But whether it’s just our daily news or those moments that have shock the nation like the Mumbai terror attacks or Kargil war to those golden moments which make the nation proud like the successful launch of the satellite ‘Chandrayan’ and the Tata Jaguar-Landrover takeover, there are those faces that bring us these stories and have become a part of our lives in doing so- the journalists.

The test-drive SUVs, report from Swine Flu wards, walk into abattoirs, interview the kin of murder accused, make rounds of police stations, count wickets and go on assignments to areas without sanitation, electricity or mobile-phone connectivity. Several editorial teams are run entirely by women. So, when it's time to dispatch the best man for the job, we do exactly that. And often, the best man happens to be a woman.

Here are the few women journalists or legends that have made a difference in the field of Journalism by their stories, writings and reporting.

Prabha Dutt – She will always be etched on your mind for her boldness and courage as a women journalist.

Prabha Dutt's Daughter, Barkha Dutt

It was 1965. Prabha Dutt, at this time still single and a young woman in her twenties, had already had to fight to convince newspaper editors that women journalists were good for more than reporting on the local flower show in town. When war broke out between India and Pakistan, she was audacious enough to demand that she be assigned to cover the conflict. The response, not surprisingly, was a categorical ‘No’. Not used to taking ‘no’ for an answer, especially when it came to her work, Prabha Dutt smartly asked for some days off instead, supposedly to visit her parents in Punjab. Vacation sanctioned, she made her way all by herself to Khem-Karan, and started sending dispatches from the front that the Hindustan Times found too good to not publish.

In 1999, desperate to be able to report from the battle-zone of Kargil, she had to tackle multiple gender hurdles with a sceptical Army. Finally, after assuring them that a quick duck under a tree or behind a stone was a happy substitute for a loo and that she sought absolutely no preferential protection; she was able to report on what would come to be known as the country’s first televised war. Ironically, this was still before technology had transformed the television industry. There were no portable satellite uplinks available in an era when mobile phones were not operational across Jammu and Kashmir. Getting reports from the frontline on air was almost as tough as reporting on the war itself. Kargil, and the early exposure to near-death situations, transformed her in ways that took years to understand. She spent time with the young men – boys-who-would-be-men, really – It was humanising their stories that became the mainstay of her reporting. The first major interview se did was with Captain Vikram Batra which also became the first obituary she wrote from the frontline. The acute awareness of being a woman and the determined resolve that none should call me ‘fragile’ or ‘weak’ made her self-conscious even in overwhelmingly tense situations. She spent a long night huddled in an underground bunker with soldiers who were to go up for an assault the next morning.

When the jail authorities denied her permission to interview Billa and Ranga, the notorious murderers who had been handed a death sentence for kidnapping and killing two school children, Geeta and Sanjay Chopra, she went to court against the decision. Not surprisingly she got her interview just before the two men were executed. And Prabha Dutt vs Union of India entered the annals of case law. “Though my mother died when I was very young, there is one thing I learnt from her early on. In life, you can only be true to yourself. The rest be damned”, says Barkha Dutt, daughter of the late Prabha Dutt

But there’s one story Prabha Dutt got to report on that has left her daughter deeply envious. “On my wall is a photograph of my mother squeezed between John Lennon and Paul McCartney, matter-of-factly chatting with them on their India tour. Now that is something for which I would trade a lot! Today, I only hope that I will do my mother proud. Getting the same award as she did means more to me than so many other recognitions” says Bharkha.

In an interview to Tribune India, Barkha Dutt was asked if she did inherit the gift of news gathering from her mother, who rose up to be Chief Reporter of Hindustan Times and died young because of a brain haemorrhage? Barkha was prompt to reply: "Not just my mother but that whole generation of pioneering women journalists paved the way for us. They, in fact, were the ones who struggled more and broke the glass ceiling for us. Recalling her childhood, she remembers her mother always busy and leading an adventurous life. "It was exciting but also scary at times because she would get threatening telephone calls. I remember some of her stories. She had interviewed Billa-Ranga, terrifying criminals, in Tihar Jail. She had broken the stories of beef tallow being used in vanaspati and leakage of MBBS papers," Barkha recollects, adding that news reporting is a consuming profession and her own mother died at her prime in 1984, when Barkha was only 13.

Seema Mustafa: Officially the first person who coined the term “The Nation demands an answer”

Seema Mustafa

During the late 1970’s, a Muslim girl who was born to a family with roots in Uttar Pradesh in Delhi rocked the political world with her pen was Seema Mustafa. Seema Mustafa, daughter of Lt.Col. Syed Mustafa, Seema Mustafa began her journalist career with The Pioneer in Lucknow. Seema went on to join The Patriot making her the only woman journalist with the Patriot in 1979.

Seema Mustafa has been noted to have a characteristic of a leftist and a socialist view point. Many of her articles were seen to be criticising government policies and generally reflect pro-minority, secular and feminist slants. She was seen to be lashing out at many influential sections of the political spectrum during the 1980’s and 1990’s. Seema Mustafa has defended Indian Muslims against the charge of being anti-national and pro-Pakistani.

Seema Mustafa has been a part of The Telegraph, Indian Express and then joined the Asian Age in 1997 as the political editor. When Seema Mustafe was a part of Asian age, she received many awards which included "Prem Bhatia Award for Excellence in Political Reporting and Analysis" in 1999 for her coverage of the Kargil war in May–July 1999. Seema Mustafa is prominently known for her writings in weekly op-ed columns for many other newspapers which included The Deccan Chronicle of Bangalore in India and The Dawn newspaper of Pakistan.

In 2008, Seema Mustafa penned down an op-ed that was uncharacteristically critical of the Congress party. The article criticized the Indo-US Nuclear Deal specifically and the congress-led government in general for seeking friendly relations with the George W. Bush administration. The column characterized the Bush administration and the "Muslim world" as being at war with each other and threatened revolt by Indian Muslims if the Indian government sided with the US by signing any nuclear agreement with the US government, regardless of the benefit to India. Although the intemperance of her views and language elicited criticism in the Indian media, MJ Akbar, founding editor of the Asian Age, defended Seema strongly and the newspaper propagated the same views as hers on its pages. Ultimately, M.J. Akbar was sacked for this editorial policy and Seema also quit the Asian Age.

Seema Mustafa is consulting Editor with Sunday Indian. She has over 30 years experience in journalism having started the profession as a reporter with The Patriot, Delhi and going on to work with The Indian Express, The Telegraph, India Today, Economic Times, The Asian Age and Sunday Guardian. She also had a short stint in television doing a regular interview show Straight Talk for News X that she later joined as the National Affairs Editor a little over a year. Seema is now a columnist for several newspapers across India, both English and vernacular. She is the only Indian journalist to have covered the Beirut War in 1982 at a time when India did not have diplomatic relations with Israel. She has covered conflict and war in the Middle East, and across India where she has covered and written extensively on the violence in Assam, Kashmir, and Punjab as well as the communal carnage in states like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Priyanka Sinha Jha: Bollywood would have not been Bollywood without her

Priyanka Sinha Jha in the Left with Ranbir Kapoor

The twinkle of tinsel town is not as shinny as it appears and unveiling the gold cover of Bollywood is a young editor of an established film broadsheet, Priyanka Sinha Jha. Born in 1975, Priyanka is among the youngest editors in the Indian Express Group. In her capacity as the Editor of Screen which is India's oldest and only film and entertainment broadsheet, Priyanka has been the entrepreneur of many key event initiatives at Screen which includes Screen Big Picture (a panel discussion among industry bigwigs about trends in Bollywood), Screen Chatroom (a question and answer session with leading film stars) and Screen Preview (an interaction with the director and the principal cast of an upcoming film) which act as the feathers to her cap. Priyanka is also in charge of the annual Screen Awards which is considered to be the most fair-minded and credible film awards, headed by an impartial film-industry jury. To expand the scope and influence of the Screen Awards, in 2010, she introduced the Screen Academy, a selection academy that comprises leading names from the film industry as its members, and acts as a selection committee for award nominees.

 Priyanka brings a 360 degree approach to her specialty which is celebrity and entertainment journalism. She is among the few editors in India who have had the experience of editing and writing for both magazines and newspapers of varied subjects and periodicity. Priyanka entered the field of journalism as a correspondent at Citadel (a city magazine), continued writing for The Asian Age (a national daily) and also was a part of Intelligent Investor/Outlook Money (a personal finance magazine). Priyanka took the front seat as an editor at the age 26, with Society magazine (a national celebrity magazine) and followed it up with the editorship of HT Style (a daily lifestyle supplement) and HT Saturday (the Saturday edition of Hindustan Times).

In a career span of over 15 years, Priyanka has written on varied subjects that include entertainment, art, business, crime, trends and of course, celebrities and their lifestyles. She is known for her insightful interviews with celebrities such as Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Mukesh and Neeta Ambani, Sam Pitroda, Manmohan Singh, MF Husain, Shobhaa De, Vijay Mallya and Ness Wadia among others.

Priyanka has also contributed to Outlook, Tehelka and The Week magazine. Priyanka has moderated many discussions on Bollywood celebrities and trends for Jet Wings magazine as well as for business publications in the Express group, besides being quoted in publications such as The Guardian on Bollywood trends and on BBC Radio on Indian celebrity lifestyles.

Priyanka was recently honoured with the Young Communicator Award by the ISB&M school of Communication (Pune) for her contribution to journalism, and was also featured in Doordarshan's series dedicated to Women Achievers. The young generation is finally starting to take the steering wheel.

Nirupama Subramanian: The south superstar, Rajnikanth? Not really!

Nirupama Subramanian

Nirupama Subramanian is a Chennai based journalist. She excels in her writing skills and was born to write. She writes most articles on political, core, rapid and sensational content that relates to current affairs and the economy. Nirupama was born on October 16th 1983.

Ms Subramanian has covered Sri Lanka for seven years. From 1996 to 2002, she was based in Colombo as the correspondent for the Indian Express and later The Hindu. She is now Special Correspondent of the Hindu in Chennai. Nirupama has previously worked with other publications such as The Times of India, The Indian Express and India Today.

In 2002, she went to Harvard on the Nieman Fellowship for Journalists, which allowed her to work on a book based on her Sri Lankan stint, “Sri Lanka: Voices from a War Zone”. She received the Prem Bhatia Award for Best Political Reporting in 2008 and the Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Woman Media person, 2008-09.

Since childhood she had the flair for writing and would love writing words after even words at primary schooling as part of an entertaining activity. As she grew older she started realizing her flair for content writing on political sensation that needed some heads up. Did she always want to be a journalist? Yes she did her path to becoming a journalist wasn’t anything unusual. You can call it a mix of circumstances and a half-desire to be a journalist.

She began to be interested in journalism as a student in St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. Those were the post-emergency years, and a journalist’s life seemed very exciting. Sunday Observer was a quality paper, and Sunday magazine was very inspiring. Indian Express was in the midst of its Antulay scoops. C.Y.Gopinath, who was a well-known name in journalism (he used to be in JS magazine), came to her college to conduct a journalism workshop. The assignment given was to write about the Sony Walkman, which had just come into the market then. He had written a piece himself, and later they compared hers with his. His words” make every word on the page count; if you blow hard on the page, there should not be one word here that can fly away.”

But she also thought that she could make a career in academics, especially after she came first in the BA Sociology exams in Mumbai University. After which she moved to Delhi University where she did a Masters in the same subject from the Delhi School of Economics. Anyway, while she waited for the academic year to start at St. Xavier’s, she also applied to the Diploma in Social Journalism that Times of India’s newly set up Times Research Foundation was offering. She wrote a test in the Time of India building opposite VT, got through, and decided to take it. Just two days before that, she had started a temporary job at Mid-day in Mumbai. She left it soon as she got the TRF letter. TRF took her back to Delhi. It was a one-year training programme in all sectors of journalism. Reporting, editing, photography, making a page everything was human done, no computers then. It was a magic year and she has been a journalist ever since.

She did feel the pinch of her gender effect work in her career path. Nevertheless she never considered herself a woman journalist but a period journalist that led her to her end goal. For instance, in the days leading up to the Lal Masjid siege in Islamabad in 2007, the mosque leaders would hold press conferences every now and then. Once, she was barred from entering the mosque, but she looked the man in the eye and told him “media is media, there is no difference between male and female journalists.” He did not have a ready reply and did not dare to push her out as he might have done had she been a man, so she just walked past him.

She believed that the gender, male and female journalists, does play a role in the way people react to you as a journalist in certain situations. But even in this, Indian women journalists have broken down a lot of stereotypes. She was a women journalist who made it to three different sub continents amongst which she found Pakistan the most challenging.

“The learning curve was steep after Sri Lanka, which was a single story country Tamils vs. Sinhalese, Tigers vs. Sri Lankan army. Here, on a single day, there are multiple developments along different tracks. On one day, you could have a big terrorist attack story, separately a huge political development plus something on the India-Pakistan front. Enough to make one feel ill by the end of the day” she says.

“The other aspect is the working environment. The bilateral agreement is only for two resident journalists from each country in the other. For an Indian journalist in Pakistan, the burden is on the journalist to demonstrate that she is not an “agent of RAW”. There is very little access to the corridors of power. Meeting people outside officialdom is much easier,” and this is how she had worked her way through Pakistan.

She has always admired Shekhar Gupta for his interviewing abilities, and for his scent for stories; her colleague Vidya Subhramanyam is a great political reporter; so was Anjali Puri of Outlook to her.

As she worked by herself, and lived by herself, she could adjust her working hours as she wished, so long as she kept to the deadlines. Exercise is her big stress-buster. She is the talkies of The Hindu and all her colleagues love her. She is an extremely passionate, dedicated and daring lady with down to earth attitude towards anybody and everybody.

Usha Rai: The women who made it happen for more than 40 years

Usha Rai

Usha Rai has been a prominent part of the print industry for more than forty who has been the face of The Times of India, The Indian Express and Hindustan Times. Apart from writing on various subjects, she is known for her work in the social sector. Currently she does research projects for the United Nations.

She shared how it all started with the Sunday Express, “Forty six years ago, when I stepped into The Times of India (TOI), full of enthusiasm, determined to make a career in journalism, it was a lonely place for a woman. There were just a handful of women in the profession — television had not yet made inroads into the media--- and women were seen as upstarts and birds of passage. There was no toilet for women in the editorial floor, and I had to share the toilet with the telephone operators in the basement of the four storeyed building on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg. Though I was a reporter I was not expected to do night duty because according to the labour laws there should be at least two women on duty after sun down and transport had to be provided” she says.

She also gave an insight of the industry was when she was in her initial years. She says that the men clung on to the more important beats, whether it was covering the Delhi Administration, the civic body, local politics and even crime. She was asked to cover flower and fashion shows and Shankar’s on the spot painting competitions. TOI was just beginning its entry into the big world of glamour and beauty pageants and fashion shows had to be covered. When she asked for maternity leave in 1969, she was told there was no such rule in TOI to allow women to sit at home and have babies on paid leave.

She recalled that even before she entered the profession as a reporter in the mid 1960s, Kamla Mankekar, Promilla Kalan, eminent film critic Amita Malik, Rami Chhabra, Aruna Mukherji, Shantha Rangachary had blazed the trail, writing wonderful articles on social and political issues for The Statesman, Hindustan Times (HT), TOI and The Indian Express (IE). “In Mumbai in the 1950s, writer Freny Talyarkhan and photo journalist Homai Vyarawalla (98) were known names. Vyarawalla was one of the first woman photo journalists who covered the Independence struggle. Her images are archival material today” she remembered.

Usha Rai has become an inspiration for many young journalists in the country today.

These women are just few women journalists who have made their dreams into reality and engraved their names in the history of print. There are more to come and the number will be much larger. These names will not only shake the state of the industry that underestimates the power of women, but also will change the face of the industry. There is going to be a time when the women will decide what they will cover and leave the rest for men to pick up for. The industry is changing; the women journalists are the ones bringing about the change.