Chris Cobb – Canada
Chris Cobb, president of the CJA Canadian branch, is a senior feature writer and reporter at the Ottawa Citizen newspaper in Canada’s capital. He is a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery and specializes in writing on politics, political communication and privacy/security issues related to post-9/11 legislation. He has taught journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada’s largest journalism school, and has led training sessions for the CJA in Nigeria, Guyana, Bangladesh and Sarawak. He wrote a book “Ego and Ink” which chronicles the creation of former media baron Conrad Black’s National Post newspaper in 1997 and Canada’s subsequent historic newspaper wars.
Vice Presidents
Fauzia Shaheen – Pakistan
Fauzia Shaheen is the founding editor of a monthly news magazine “Dastak (Knock) and quarterly “Liberal Pakistan” and also contributes articles to BBC’s online Urdu service. She is the founder and former President of Women Media Center Pakistan whose core function is to carry out research, training and education of media women in Pakistan. The WMC is currently involved in organizing training programs with the help of the National Endowment for Democracy, Washington, DC, USA, and US Consulate Karachi. She is the founding member of South Asian Editors Forum and has memberships with International Women Media Foundation, CJA, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, Karachi Union of Journalists and Karachi Press Club.
Syed Nahas Pasha – UK
One of the most respected British-Bangladeshi journalists in the UK and the editor in chief of the Weekly Janomot, a Bangla newspaper established in 1969. Syed is also editor in chief of restaurant magazine Curry Life and UK bureau chief of the largest Bangladeshi online news agency, bdnews24.com. He is one of the founding members and former general secretary of the London Bangla Press Club, which acts as a voice for British Bangladeshi journalists, and has worked with government bodies including the Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Shyamal Dutta – Bangladesh
Shyamal Dutta is editor of the daily Bhorer Kagoj and the Diner Sheshe, the only evening newspaper in Bangladesh. He is also Director of the Institute of Conflict, Law & Development, an independent think tank, and Executive Committee member of National Press Club, Bangladesh, and on the Board of Directors of the Press Institution of Bangladesh. Shyamal worked as a media advisor to UNAIDS, Bangladesh, as a trainer on human tights and child rights at the Legal Education Training Institute, and as a member of Viva Board of Public Service Commission, Bangladesh. He was awarded the Asia Pacific Media Studies Program Fellowship in 1994 by the University of California, and covered the UN General Assembly, and elections in the USA, India, Pakistan and all the SAARC summits in South Asia. He is a regular commentator on Bangladeshi television.
Drito Alice – Uganda
Drito Alice is a professional media practitioner, an author, gender strategist and medalist. She holds Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communication and Master’s Degree in Gender Studies from Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. She competed for election to the East African Legislative Assembly in 2017. She served as a Commissioner representing the media on the National Commission for African Peer Review Mechanism, good governance programme under the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. She has worked for both national and international media establishments.
Bhushan
Executive Committee
Jayanta Roy Chowdhury – India
Jayanta is a senior Indian journalist with more than 25 years of experience in news agencies and newspapers. Currently Senior Editor with The Telegraph, Jayanta also regularly broadcasts on Indian television and radio. An alumnus of Delhi University, he was also Chevening Fellow in development econoics during 2010. Among his recent academic contributions he presented a paper on East Asian Integration before the Keizai Kohon (Japan Institute of Social and Economic Research).
Osman Gani Monsur – Bangladesh
Saroj Nagi – India
A journalist for over three decades, Saroj Nagi has worked with several prestigious publications, including The Hindustan Times, a premier multi-edition English daily, where she was Associate Editor. A freelancer presently, she writes on various subjects though her primary focus remains on national politics, public affairs and issues of governance. Saroj has earned her M.A and M.Phil degrees from Jawaharlal Nehru University. She is a founder member of the Indian Women’s Press Corps and the Indian chapter of South Asian Women in Media, a network of women media professionals from SAARC countries. For four years from 2007, she was a member of the Preview Committee that selects films for competition and general viewing for the International Film Festival of India. She has contributed articles to edited books, lectured in various institutes and participated in seminars, workshops and TV and radio programmes.
William Horsley – UK
William Horsley is an Executive Board member of the CJA and co-chair of the non-government Working Group which authored the Commonwealth Principles on Freedom of Expression and the Role of the Media in Good Governance. For many years William reported on major world events as a BBC foreign correspondent active across Europe and Asia, and as a TV and radio presenter. As a leading international advocate for media freedom he is also international director of the Centre for Freedom of the Media at the University of Sheffield and on the UK Advisory Board of Reporters Without Borders. He has advised UNESCO, the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on issues and action-oriented policies related to media freedom and the rule of law. His publications include the OSCE Safety of Journalists Guidebook (2020) and A Mission to Inform: Journalists at risk speak out (Council of Europe, 2020). William writes the CFOM International Director’s blog, and contributes and broadcasts on media and international issues for the BBC, Al Jazeera, The Round Table, Open Democracy, Mainichi newspaper, British Journalism Review and others.
Debbie Ransome – UK
Debbie Ransome is British born of Trinidadian parents and spent her early life enjoying the best of both worlds. She worked as News Editor and then News Director at Radio Trinidad before joining BBC’s Caribbean Service as a producer in the early 90s. Debbie worked as a producer at Bush House at the Caribbean Service and also in the World Service newsroom before moving to work on BBC World TV news. Later, Debbie returned from BBC TV to run the Caribbean Service at Bush House. She has also worked on BBC’s Radio 4 network and at BBC News Online’s World Desk. Debbie is currently the Editor of the CJA Newsletter and Managing Editor of Caribbean Diaspora website www.caribbeanintelligence.com.
Ebenezer W Motale – Cameroon
Ebenezer Winnyawoko Motale read Radio, Film and Television at Christ Church College Canterbury, University of Kent, from 1985-88. He graduated with a B.A (Hons.) and went to City University London where he read Communication Policy Studies, graduating with an M.A. He later worked with Cameroon Radio Television, a public broadcaster, as a reporter, Editor-in-Chief and from 2016 as senior reporter. For most of the time with CRTV he was also a news presenter on television. He now works as a Deputy Director responsible for Magazines, and is publisher of The Crown newspaper.