May 2026 Newsletter

Panelists and attendees from SAJA's Chicago event gather for a group photo.

This month, SAJA brought together journalists and media leaders in Chicago for “The Fourth Estate Under Pressure: Journalism at a Crossroads,” a timely conversation on the forces reshaping journalism today. Led by SAJA board members Safia Ali and Sree Sreenivasan, the panel featured leading voices from broadcast, print and academia reflecting on the growing challenges facing the industry. Moderator Dr. Kalyani Chadha of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism led the discussion with panelists Ash-har Quraishi of CBS News, Rummana Hussain of the Chicago Sun-Times and Ravi Baichwal of ABC-7 Chicago. Also, in attendance, 2025 SAJA Scholarship Recipient, Ananya Chag, who just graduated from Medill.

Check out more photos and videos from the event on IG at @theofficialsaja. Thanks to everyone who attended!

Top: SAJA Board members Safia Samee Ali and Sree Sreenivasan at the SAJA Chicago Event. Middle: Left to right - Panelists Ash-har Quraishi, Rummana Hussain, Ravi Baichwal, Dr. Kalyani Chadha and Safia Samee Ali.
Middle: Ananya Chag (sitting)
Bottom: Dr. Kalyani Chadha, Rummana Hussain, Ash-har Quraishi, Ravi Baichwal.

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In New York, SAJA board member Esha Ray moderated a panel in New York exploring AAPI depictions in media, how that storytelling has evolved and where the conversation can go next. Hosted by the NY Chapters of The Asian American Foundation (TAAF) and the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), the event convened journalists and nonprofit leaders for a discussion on representation, visibility and the future of local coverage. Check out some photos from the event below.

Top: Leaders from AAJA New York, TAAF, SAJA and panelists gather in New York. Photo credit: Will Oliver for AAJA. Bottom: Joy Moh (left), head of communications and marketing at TAAF with SAJA Board Member Esha Ray (right).

Announcements

SAJA Q&A with Ben Rekhi

Recently, SAJA President Indira Somani spoke with filmmaker Ben Rekhi for a virtual conversation to discuss his new documentary Breaking the Code. The film follows Ben’s relationship with his father Kanwal Rekhi, a Silicon Valley pioneer and the first Indian-origin CEO of a publicly traded U.S. tech company. The documentary is a powerful story of migration, sacrifice,love, grief and success, wrapped in the immigrant dream.

“I think that’s the power of film — it’s an empathy machine. You can feel what it feels like to walk in someone else’s shoes.” –Ben Rekhi

Ben said crafting the film’s story “was a way to be a conduit for the audience… everyone has parents, and this becoming more personal made it more universal.” For the full interview go to this link.

Thanks to former SAJA Board member Aseem Chhabra and festival director of the New York Indian Film Festival, Breaking the Code will have its NY Premiere Saturday, May 30th at 3pm at Village East Angelika.
Tickets available here!

Events

Save the Date: September 27–30, 2026 | Chicago, IL

Kaleidoscope Live! is back, and Borealis Philanthropy’s Racial Equity in Journalism Fund is bringing the energy to Chicago! This year’s convening is designed to multiply relationships, amplify expertise, and drive sustainable revenue and equitable public policy across the BIPOC journalism ecosystem. Registration information to come.

===========================AAJA-NY is hosting a Spring Picnic in Battery Park this weekend.

Sunday, May 31
Rockefeller Park, 75 Battery Place
11amEST
No RSVP required.

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AAJA Convention Event

Join AAJA Northeast Regional chapters for a joint mixer!
Hosting: AAJA-DC, AAJA-New England, AAJA-New York, AAJA Philadelphia, SAJA and AAJA-News Nerds
Where: Day Block Brewing
1105 Washington Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55415
When: Friday, June 26, 6-8pmCST

Join SAJA

GOPIO-Manhattan is hosting a networking event for high school and college-going students that includes lunch and a panel discussion on "College and Beyond." The panel will feature a diverse group of young professionals, college students and recent graduates who will share their experiences navigating college admissions and landing their first jobs.

Location: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 305 7th Ave, New York

When: Sunday, June 7th, 1pm

Saturday, June 20th - FT Weekend Festival: NYC Edition arrives (virtually and in-person) in New York on June 20 at Spring Studios for a day of conversations, culture, performances and fresh ideas featuring writers and contributors from the Financial Times. Register here.

Tuesday, June 23 - Sangeetha Kowsik (NYU’s Hindu Chaplain and founder of its Hindu Center), is giving a talk about the Met’s current exhibition on prints of Hindu gods and goddesses from 1860-1930.

Location: The Met, Gallery 251, Florence and Herbert Irving Galleries

Time: 3-3:30 pm

Jobs, Fellowships & Internships

AXIOS, Local Reporter, Phoenix

NBC NEWS, Production Assistant, NYC

NBC NEWS, Desk Editor/Associate Producer, NYC

NBC 4 Platform Manager, LA

PROPUBLICA, Local Reporting Network Fellow, Remote

VERSANT, CNBC Field Producer, DC

WASHINGTON POST, Opinion Editing Intern, DC

NYTimes, Director, Digital Media & Communications, LA; NY; SF

NY Post, Lifestyle Editor, LA

NBC News- Audio Podcast Producer, NY

CBS News- Associate Podcast Producer, NY

TelevisaUnivision- Multimedia Video Producer, Miami

MONTANA FREE PRESS, Local Reporter, Billings, MT

SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, Senior Editor - Publications, San Francisco

Check out SAJA’s Job Board and these newsletters to stay up-to-date on job openings -Mandy Hofmockel, West Coast Media Jobs, Inside the Newsroom.

Scholarships & Grants

The Knight-Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism - A Stanford University-funded reporting grant and journalism award that provides up to $10,000 to support ambitious enterprise or investigative environmental reporting projects focused on the American West. Applications are open until June 2.

Special Spotlights/Shoutouts

Chandrani Ghosh, a former journalist and SAJA DC member, has worked at Time, Forbes and Business Standard. Drawing on her experiences of growing up across the globe, she makes her literary debut with the novel Heartlines. It follows the journey of Sharmila, an Indian American journalist and global citizen whose life is upended by a chance encounter at a high-profile awards ceremony.

Congratulations to NYT reporting fellow Pooja Salhotra, who was just hired full time to the National Desk at NYT. Pooja is originally from Texas.

Congratulations to Aishwarya Kumar for being named as a finalist for the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting for her feature on astronaut Sunita Williams’ journey through space.

ABOUT US

Founded in March 1994 with just 18 members, the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) now represents more than 1,000 journalists of South Asian origin across the U.S. and Canada. SAJA serves as a network for training, inspiration, and support—not only for South Asian journalists but for anyone covering South Asia and its diaspora. SAJA also aims to improve the coverage of the Subcontinent and its diaspora.

SAJA.org· X:@sajaHQ· IG:@theofficialsaja·
LinkedIn:South Asian Journalists Association