Sustained, Responsible and In-depth Reporting on and from the Northeast need of the hour

19th National Meeting of the Network of Women in Media, India, (NWMI), Guwahati on January 31 to Feb 2, 2025

More than 190 women media professionals from across the country, representing print, digital and electronic media in diverse languages and regions, came together for this important event.

The News Minute (TNM) and Don Bosco Institute (DBI) of Management Studies collaborated with NWMI to receive RSF funds that covered travel grants and accommodation. Almost every year since it was set up in 2002, NWMI has held an annual meeting hosted by one of its local chapters. The aim of these meetings is to get as many of the more than 900 women media professionals who are now part of the network to meet in person, discuss issues that concern journalists and the challenges faced during the course of our work. The meetings also provide opportunities for skill building, for learning more about the city and the state where the meeting is held, and to provide space to discuss concerns that often cannot be aired in public.

The media in India is under extreme pressure, even as the overall liberal space is shrinking and along with it, media freedoms are increasingly at risk. From physical attacks to online abuse, false cases and intimidation, journalists operate in a difficult environment. In addition, with government pressure including outright bans and the use of legal cases to harass media outlets, the legacy media is struggling to stay afloat in an intensely competitive environment.

Women journalists are struggling to enter and stay in the profession, facing the gender pay gaps, bias, and outright harassment. Journalists from minority religions and marginalized communities are even more vulnerable.

Statement and theme  

NWMI released a statement at the end of the meet, calling for more responsible and sensitive reporting on North East India and a more secure environment for independent journalists to carry out their work.

The topic of this year’s public meeting was ‘Media: Conflict and Climate Change-Impact on Women’.  The meeting began with a presentation titled ‘Crafting Conservation: The Hargila Story’ by Whitley Gold, Champions of the Earth and Time Woman of the Year award winning conservationist Purnima Devi Barman, the only Indian Woman on TIME’s Women of the Year 2025. She highlighted how she mobilized villagers, particularly women, in saving the Greater Adjutant Stork (GAS), locally known as the ‘hargila’ which was considered being an ‘ill-omen’ for the society.

Registrations, introductions & learning more about who we are

Participants registering for the meet

This year, internal sessions were conducted across all three days of the meet. After registering, participating members from across India introduced themselves.

On the second day, the two-hour internal network session of the NWMI discussed in detail various activities that have been taken up in the past and also the plans for the future. It was also discussed in length about the roles of the members, specifically how more members should come forward to volunteer on their own for various network activities. The non-hierarchical and voluntary nature of the collective was highlighted and all members were urged to be more proactive towards helping it grow more dynamically to make a visible difference in the landscape of Indian Journalism.

The final internal session was a wrap-up of the three-day meeting. A discussion on bringing out a statement was also held, while members also deliberated on the venue of the next NWMI national meet.

Cruising the Brahmaputra

NWMI members on the Brahmaputra cruise.

Members took some time out after the meet to sail along the Brahmaputra on an evening cruise.

NWMI member Sonal Kellog compiled and created this video summing up this year’s meet.

A sketch of the meeting by Priyanka Borpujari.

GALLERY

Click here for Media Coverage Roundup

Report by Durba Ghosh

The organising committee of the NWMI National Meeting in Guwahati:

Durba Ghosh, ⁠Bidisha Singha, ⁠Sushmita Goswami, Nasreen Habib, Chandrani Sinha, ⁠Karishma Hasnat, ⁠Kasturi Das, ⁠Joyshree Baruah, Sanskrita Bharadwaj, ⁠and Angana Chakrabarti.

Reports and Visuals:

Ammu Joseph, Annie Philip, Anuradha Sharma, Durba Ghosh, Hepzi Anthony, Jayanti Baruda, Laxmi Murthy, Madhavi Ravikumar, Neetu Singh, Priyanka Borpujari, Romita Saluja, Sandhya Srinivasan, Saraswathy Nagarajan, Shahin Mokashi, Sindhu Nepolean, Neetu Singh, Sonal Kellogg, Sumana Ramanan, Sumita Jaiswal, Sunalini Mathew, Supriya Unni, Swagata Yadavar, Tasneem Kutubuddin, and Varsha Torgalkar.