Thread by @nit_set

#Thread.

Hey friends. Have a short story to tell. About journalism. A dream. Some thoughts. And a plan.

Will you please stay with me till the end?

I urge you to.

1. We won @ACJIndia's award for Investigative journalism this year. It was for the Electoral Bonds series that ran eventually into 10 parts, 7 languages and 11 publications.

I purposefully use 'we'. It took a whole village of people to get the series out.

2. Since the news of the award, so many of you have showered your wishes, affection and blessings. We are overwhelmed. Swamped with love, if I may say so. Thank you so much. Forgive me for not being able to respond to each one of you personally.

THANK YOU all.

3. The Electoral Bonds series was based largely on the efforts of Commodore Lokesh Batra who worked unrelentingly to bring out documents through RTI. @AnjaliB_ too had simultaneously got some of these and other unique docs out. They deserve the award more than us hacks.

4. But we do believe there is more to celebrate than just this series. The award is for a larger idea. Of a kind of journalism, which our experiences tell us, has become terribly difficult to do. Of renewing the space for rigorous, fearless and evidence-based journalism.

5. This idea has brought some like-minded journalists together to form The Reporters' Collective. An idea to help each other do journalism which scrutinises governance and public policy with rigour and write on it with evidence and understanding. You can follow us @reporters_co.

6. The series was special for us. For the first time many publications across several languages collaborated to put out a story that unflinchingly told the truth and did so with hard evidence after months of research.

7. @HuffPostIndia was the lead publisher. The editors @Amannama and @SharanyaHK lifted the stories with their brilliance. You can read the entire series here: huffingtonpost.in/news/paisapoli…

8. It was the collective of our co-publishers in other languages that gave life to the series. Our initial partners were

@newslaundry
@azhimukham
@savukku
@DharitriLive1

This collaboration across languages further nurtured the idea of the Collective. Thank you all.

9. Then the list grew. Of publications and languages that we found partners in

We want to thank them:

@prajavani
@arunachaltimes_
@ImphalFreePress
@assamtimes_
@DeccanHerald
@MaxMaharashtra
@NewsMeter_In
@4thpillars

They gave more muscle to the collective.

10. With them, @Kum_Sambhav published an explosive series on Cemtre's plans for a 360 degree surveillance system mapping all 1.4 billion Indian citizens.

This is the kind of journalism we are all so hungry to do more of.

You can read it here:

huffingtonpost.in/entry/aadhaar-…

11. By then the #Covid19 pandemic had gripped the country.

12. Responding to the crisis, we published 2 series on Centre’s response to the pandemic. We revealed material facts that the government had hidden from citizens. The team of journalists who produced this series included @mridulasee, @Kum_Sambhav, @hridayeshjoshi @Ankur_pali & I

13. @Article14live was the lead publisher for these stories. Editor @samar11 and his team worked assiduously to bring out a tough set of stories. @thakurfdn came forward to fund the long-gestation period of research. You can read them here:

article-14.com/post/no-action…

14. The series was published in 11 languages and 11 publications. We also collaborated with the excellent team at @SunoIndia_in to podcast it in English.

Listen to it:
sunoindia.in/the-suno-india…

15. We simultaneously produced this series in video format from our own resources. @hridayeshjoshi’s labour along with @amrit_jnu. You can see these and keep a track of our future multimedia work at youtube.com/thereportersco…

16. Why the collective? What does it do? You may ask. In the last many years when institutions of journalism weakened we instead found so many people in and outside the journalistic fraternity helping us to do better. Informally and unacknowledged.

17. At times with ideas. On occasions by just standing alongside. Sometimes by playing the devil’s advocate. At times with material help. So often to compensate for the weak institutional support.

(On a personl note: @akoi_Jam does this and more all the time for me).

18. We wanted to formally acknowledge. This is what it takes today to produce deep-dive journalism in these trying times: A whole village. And, then some more.

Let me give you a few examples.

19. The collective’s collaborations came through with kind souls like @churumuri @paranjoygt @waglenikhil, @SatpathyLive @ameytirodkar and @sugataraju aiding us.

Several others would rather not be named but they built bridges for us to cross over.

20. For our recent work on #Covid19 lawyer @shreyashrivastava’s research and expertise gave us a solid base to build our reportage on. At initial stages of research @anoobhuyan, a stellar public health shared her knowledge to put us on the right track.

21. I have always depended on (ex)colleagues and friends. For example @ieuditmisra & @ishan_83 regularly critique my work, argue out ideas. @Kum_Sambhav edits/mentors my stories (He is of course the heart of the collective now). At times, we disagree. That is why I need them.

22. So many people, friends and strangers have helped us through a tumultuous 8-9 months. We cannot thank them enough. And, we won't stop troubling them :). You know who you all are.

23. Looking ahead. We will strengthen and expand the work at The Reporters' Collective @reporters_co.

We are in the process of giving a formal shape to the collective. Build an anchor and community for the collective's work. We will come back on this soon.

Watch this space

24. Till then, share your love and wishes. Guide us along. Support us.

Thank you. For all the wishes.

(And, for the patience with which you read till here).

END.

Argggh. I and my errors. @shr_shreya71 !! Sorry Shreya.

(if the thread doesn't have typos I did not write it 😒)

And i got @AnooBhu's handle wrong too! Slap me.