Journalism in India: interview with Meena Menon

“Journalists are jailed for sedition, shot dead for doing their job and harassed in all kinds of ways”, she says. Photo: courtesy

Meena Menon is an independent Indian journalist and at present, a third-year PhD candidate at the University of Leeds, in the United Kingdom. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Literature and a Master’s degree in English and French Literature from the University of Mumbai, in India. As an academic researcher, she focuses on social movements, history and leadership.

For 38 years, Menon has reported on politics, health, human rights and development issues. She has worked for Bombay Magazine, United News of India, Mid-day, The Times of India and The Hindu, which was her last job till 2015. She has taught media studies at the Xavier Institute of Communications (XIC) in Mumbai.

Menon is also the author of books such as A Frayed History: the journey of cotton in India (2017, with Uzramma), Reporting Pakistan (2017), Riots and After in Mumbai: chronicles of truth and reconciliation (2012), and The Unseen Worker: on the trail of the girl child (1998). Read more in the interview below.

Enio Moraes Júnior — India is a country full of contrasts and these contrasts can be both wonderful and cruel at times. Did they influence your decision to become a journalist?

Meena Menon — Thank you for this. Yes, in a way they did, though as a journalist one tends to look at the inequalities in society and write…