Hello! my name is Kunāl Majumder

With 17 years in journalism, media leadership, and academia, I’ve dedicated my career to advancing press freedom and fostering innovation. Currently, as a Knight Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, I’m studying AI, U.S. foreign policy, and entrepreneurship, focusing on leveraging public policy to enhance journalist protections. Previously, as the India Representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists, I led efforts to document press freedom violations and advocate for journalist safety. I continue to support impactful journalism as an advisor to the Impulse Model Press Lab and have taught as a visiting faculty member at Jamia Millia Islamia University. Throughout my career, I’ve held leadership roles at major Indian media outlets like Tehelka, Indian Express, and Zee Media, launching platforms like Catch News and InUth to engage young audiences. Throughout my career, my work on issues ranging from rural reporting to gender sensitivity has earned recognition, including awards and fellowships such as the EUVP Fellowship, the Jan Mitra Award, the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting and UNFPA-Laadli Award for Gender Sensitivity.
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HOW TEHELKA NAILED MANIPUR POLICE’S LIES

by Kunal Majumder 2 minutes read.

CHUNGKHAM TARATOMBI Devi’s fight for justice has yielded results. Fourteen months after her son Chungkham Sanjit Singh Meitei was killed in a fake encounter by Manipur Police, the CBI has filed a chargesheet against nine of the 14 accused policemen. Exposés in TEHELKA by Teresa Rehman (Murder in Plain Sight, 8 August 2009) and Shoma Chaudhury (Life in a Shadow Land, 15 August 2009) had detailed the coldblooded murder. Photographs published along with the story revealed the entire sequence of Sanjit’s death.

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‘The choice is between us and misrule under Lalu’

by Kunal Majumder 1 minute read.

JP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi tells KUNAL MAJUMDER that allies cannot dictate terms during the Bihar poll campaign. “Modi is our senior leader and commands mass appeal. The Bihar campaign is going to start in October and we are still finalising the details. It’s too early to say anything. We are in the process of drawing up the list of possible rallies that we will organise on our own and the ones that we will jointly hold with the Janata Dal (United). The final decision will be taken after consultations with leaders at the state and national level.”

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Accident Sites – radiation, cancer, blindness, tardiness, cover-ups. The lessons from the Kalpakkam nuclear facility

by Kunal Majumder 3 minutes read.

TEHELKA travels to Kalpakkam and Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu where two nuclear plants are located.

IN AN inconspicuous corner of the Department of Atomic Energy’s (DAE) website is a large map that could easily belong in a student’s science textbook. On the map that captures atomic energy establishments in India, it isn’t difficult to find Kalpakkam.

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‘Arranged marriages are only good for parents’

by Kunal Majumder 1 minute read.

IN 1989, Kashmir changed for ever. Militancy assumed an ugly face in the Valley, altering the lives of Kashmiris and putting a stop to Muzaffar Ali’s ambitious project — Zooni. Ali, then 43, had already made a name for himself through Umrao Jaan and was working on a film about Habba Khatoon, a poetess who lived in 16th century Kashmir and rose to become a queen. Unnerved, he returned to Delhi. Waiting to restart filming Zooni, he began a small project to make films on improving the habitat. At his new office in the Sarai Kale Khan area in south Delhi worked a 20-year-old architecture graduate from Gujarat’s Institute of Environmental Design — Meera Saluja.

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