Venkatesh Kannaiah
Consulting Editor – Lighthousejournalism.com
Venkatesh Kannaiah is a senior journalist and Knight International Journalism fellow with stints in UNI, Sify.com, AOL India, MSN India and Indianexpress.comHe has worked in Indian news agencies, newspapers and online news properties.
Venkatesh has experience in building and managing online news teams, coordinating with legal, technology and sales teams to launch and manage online properties.Has expertise building curricula for digital journalism courses in India, networking with and mentoring international partners, and a pioneer in launching online news properties in Indian languages. He also has expertise in building and managing large online civic tech initiatives.
As a consultant with the International Center For Journalists (ICFJ) (Washington DC) -2015 – has held focus groups with journalists and journalism teachers across various cities in India and built curriculum and reading material for digital journalism course in English and three south Indian languages.
As Knight International Journalism fellow for 18 months, (2010-2011) has trained and mentored journalists on the themes of Right To Information.
Vijay Kumar Jha
Editor of Jansatta.com
He is also a certified fact-checker.
In 2016, Vijay Kumar Jha assumed the role of founding editor at Jansatta.com, rapidly propelling the website to become one of the top 10 Hindi sites in India. Under his leadership, he has instilled a more inclusive newsroom culture, fostering unique content and innovative storytelling. He is also a certified fact-checker.
Before his tenure at Jansatta.com, Vijay Jha served as the deputy editor at dainikbhaskar.com, where he played a pivotal role in securing the site’s top-ranking position. He brings nearly 2.5 decades of experience to his role.
Vijay Jha is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (New Delhi Campus). His diverse career journey has
encompassed various roles in both print and online media, contributing to well-known newspapers and portals.
Ankita Deshkar
Position: Deputy copy editor and Fact Checker
Ankita Deshkar is working as a deputy copy editor and fact checker with The Indian Express group. She has over 7 years of experience in the field of journalism. In the past she has also worked with Vishvas News as a consultant fact checker.
Ankita is a certified, Google News Initiative India Training Network (GNI) trainer for fact checking and online verification and a trainer for a year-long fellowship programme for fact checking and online verification launched by Meta and Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in the year 2022, which trained over 20 fellows from 10 media organisations across the country.
Ankita is an Engineering graduate (BE, Elect Engg), she has an MA in Mass Communication from RTM Nagpur University. She also has a PGTD in Cyber law & Information Technology and Intellectual Property Rights.
Certification:
Ankita has a certificate of Hands-on Fact-Checking: A Short Course – Poynter University’s eLearning course and a certificate in Introduction to Digital Journalism By Reuters.She also completed an online certification course on , ‘Fact checking fundamentals with IFCN’.
