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Dhanya Rajendran

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Dhanya Rajendran
This is a waist length photograph of a brown woman with long hair. Her hands are placed close to her body. She is wearing a white kurta and red lipstick. She is smiling at the camera. There are trees in the background.
Dhanya Rajendran at the 15th annual meeting of The Network of Women in Media in Bangalore, February 2020
NationalityIndian
OccupationJournalist

Dhanya Rajendran is an Indian journalist and the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The News Minute. She previously worked with Times Now and The New Indian Express.[1]

Career

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Dhanya Rajendran started her career by working for Kerala's first 24-hour news channel India Vision in 2003. In 2004, she moved to New Indian Express in Chennai. She subsequently moved to working for Times Now as a reporter in 2005 and went on to become its bureau chief of South India. Along with her husband Vignesh Vellore and Chitra Subramaniam, she then went on to co-found The News Minute, a digital news website focussing on the news coverage of the southern states of India in 2014.[2][3][4] Dhanya is also a member of The Network for Women in Media, India.[5] She is also chairperson of digipub funded by Open society foundation.

Facing online harassment as a woman journalist

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Rajendran has often had to face online harassment on account of her work. In 2017, she faced a barrage of abuse on Twitter — all for expressing an opinion about Sura, a 2010 Tamil film she did not like. Her opinion about the film starring Vijay, a popular Tamil actor, angered his fans. Rajendran's phone crashed after it could not handle close to 31,000 tweets spread across a couple of minutes. #PublicityBeepDhanya—a hashtag was created just to abuse Rajendran— started trending. And choicest of abuses laden with sexual harassment followed.[6][7][8]

Rajendran filed a complaint with the cyber crime branch of the Chennai police. In response, an FIR was filed under IPC sections 354 D (stalking), 506(1) (criminal intimidation), 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication), 509 (insulting the modesty of women), section 67 of IT Act (publishing obscene material), section 4 of TN Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act, and section 6 of the Indecent Representation of Women Act.[9]

M. K. Stalin, the leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam also an issued a statement against the misogynistic threats.[10] Despite deleting the original tweet, the violence continued. The Network for Women in Media, India and International Federation of Journalists issued statements in support of Rajendran and condemned the online harassment she had to face.[11] Finally Vijay issued a statement asking his fans to stop the online harassment against Rajendran.[12]

The Chennai police investigated Ramkumar, one of the accused, a Vijay fan and a Tamil Nadu resident in connection with the online harassment. He apologised for his deed after the police met his mother and the denial of his bail by the Madras High Court.[13][14][15]

When she reported about godman Swami Nityananda being accused of sexual abuse, she had to face sexualized harassment on social media from the followers of Nithyananda's cult.[16] In response to her reportage, the followers made several news videos by calling her choicest of abuses including presstitute, anti-national among others.[17]

Rajendran has been vocal about online harassment faced by women journalists on the field. Immediately after former chief minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalitha's death, she wrote a piece about how she was molested by one of her security men when she was out to do stories around election coverage.[18] She reacted strongly against the harassment faced by women journalists reporting about the entry of women in Sabarimala. In 2019, she issued a strong statement in support of women journalists protesting against harassment of the secretary of the Thiruvananthapuram Press Club against a woman journalist by saying: “If you touch one of us, we will retaliate. No longer your fiefdom.” [19] She has also come out in support of women sharing their stories during the Me too movement in India by consistently featuring several stories about the issue and also speaking out about it.[20]

Against sensationalism

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Rajendran has also come out against sensationalism in news media by reflecting upon her own experiences as a journalist and the pressures that compel journalists to resort to digging out voyeuristic information in cases related to 'sexual abuse'. She has said that journalists should exercise restraint and shouldn't publish graphic details of a sexual crime since it is not of use to anyone, least of all to the victim or the survivor.[21]

Awards and accolades

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Rajendran has amassed several awards in her career. She was named as one of India's best entrepreneurs in Fortune magazine's 40 under 40 list in 2018.[22] Rajendran was also awarded Namma Bengaluru media person of the year in 2017.[23]

Education

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Rajendran grew up in Palakkad, Kerala. She was educated at Kanikkamatha Convent School, Palakkad and at Government Victoria College, Palakkad. She is an alumnus of The Asian College of Journalism in Chennai.[24]

References

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  1. ^ "Smt. Dhanya Rajendran". NAMMA BENGALURU AWARDS. Archived from the original on 15 February 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  2. ^ "TNM's Editor Dhanya Rajendran Named in Fortune's 40 Under 40". The Quint. 23 March 2018. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  3. ^ "Growing by the minute". www.fortuneindia.com. Archived from the original on 7 June 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  4. ^ Sandip Sen (2 September 2019). "Interview – Dhanya Rajendran, The News Minute". Indian Printer & Publisher. Archived from the original on 11 June 2020. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  5. ^ "Byteing Back: Dhanya Rajendran Counters Online Abuse". SAMSN. Archived from the original on 11 June 2020. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  6. ^ "The News Minute editor harassed online for comparing Tamil film to Jab Harry Met Sejal". www.dailyo.in. Archived from the original on 22 September 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  7. ^ Rajendran, Dhanya (6 August 2017). "Is this kind of trolling unorganised? Definitely, not. Tweet was sent before 6 pm asking me to wait. And they started the hashtag at 6 pmpic.twitter.com/lwpYYQmyRM". @dhanyarajendran. Archived from the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  8. ^ "Journalist Dhanya Rajendran Trolled For Comment On Actor Vijay, Over 63,000 Tweets". NDTV.com. Archived from the original on 1 September 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  9. ^ "FIR on self-proclaimed Vijay fans for issuing sexual threats to TNM Editor Dhanya Rajendran". www.thenewsminute.com. Archived from the original on 18 September 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  10. ^ Gupta, Poorvi (9 August 2017). "Journo Dhanya Rajendran Bullied On Social Media For Comment On Actor". SheThePeople TV. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  11. ^ "Virulent trolling of Indian editor after Tweet". SAMSN Digital Hub – International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). 8 August 2017. Archived from the original on 11 June 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  12. ^ Scroll Staff. "Tamil actor Vijay asks fans not to abuse Bengaluru journalist for criticising his film". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 10 August 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  13. ^ Rajendran, Dhanya (22 August 2017). "Ramkumar says they were told I am an Ajith fan and so they started the abuse. He explains how he ran for days, afraid he would be arrested". @dhanyarajendran. Archived from the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  14. ^ "Vijay fan investigated for trolling journalist Dhanya Rajendran posts apology video". Hindustan Times. 23 August 2017. Archived from the original on 8 August 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  15. ^ The Hindu Net Desk (23 August 2017). "Man posts video apology for trolling 'The News Minute' editor". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  16. ^ "Dhanya Rajendran". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  17. ^ Sharabheshwaran, Sri Nithya; a. "A Response to NewsMinute and Dhanya Rajendran – What Presstitutes Look Like". nithyanandatruth.org. Archived from the original on 28 December 2019. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  18. ^ "The iron lady with a soft heart: When Jayalalithaa showed me that she cared". www.thenewsminute.com. Archived from the original on 22 September 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  19. ^ "Trivandrum Press Club Secretary Arrested for Sexually Harassing Journalist". The Wire. Archived from the original on 7 December 2019. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  20. ^ "Ramnath Goenka Awards: Celebrating excellence in the field of journalism". The Indian Express. 7 January 2019. Archived from the original on 16 November 2019. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  21. ^ "Let's not be vultures: The News Minute's Dhanya Rajendran pens a powerful post". www.dailyo.in. Archived from the original on 11 June 2020. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  22. ^ "TNM's Editor Dhanya Rajendran Named in Fortune's 40 Under 40". The Quint. 23 March 2018. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  23. ^ "Awardees". NAMMA BENGALURU AWARDS. Archived from the original on 25 February 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  24. ^ "Growing by the minute". www.fortuneindia.com. Archived from the original on 7 June 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
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