Associated Press Newswoman DEEPTI HAJELA Elected SAJA President

Associated Press Newswoman DEEPTI HAJELA Elected SAJA President

Dallas Morning News Writer VIKAS BAJAJ Elected Vice President & Convention Chair

Board Named for 2005

Group serving 1,000+ South Asian Journalists Prepares for its International Convention June 16-19, 2005

NEW YORK, Jan. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association, announced its slate of officers for 2005 today. The group serves more than 1,000 journalists and others interested in South Asia and South Asians across the U.S. and Canada.

Deepti Hajela, an Associated Press newswoman, was elected president, after having served as vice president for two years. Vikas Bajaj, a business and government writer at the Dallas Morning News, was named vice president and convention chair. Monika Mathur, a news researcher at Associated Press, was named secretary. John Laxmi, a New Jersey-based freelance writer, continues as treasurer and Sreenath Sreenivasan, a Columbia University journalism professor and WABC-TV technology reporter, continues as the group's administrator. A full slate of Board members for the year has also been named (list below).

"It is an honor to serve as SAJA's president in the coming year," said Hajela. "SAJA will continue to shape journalism in two ways: by helping newsrooms better understand South Asia as well as the South Asian communities in North America; and in helping the 1,000-plus South Asian journalists here better navigate the industry."

"I am thrilled to take on this position at an exciting time in SAJA's history," Bajaj said. "We are undertaking ambitious and unique projects and I am looking forward to working on these new initiatives and our annual convention."

Hajela takes over from S. Mitra Kalita, who served as president for two years. Kalita and Hajela first met in 1998, when both were newswomen for the Associated Press in New Jersey. "Deepti was the person who introduced me to SAJA and made sure I felt comfortable at my first convention," said Kalita, a reporter at The Washington Post and author of "Suburban Sahibs." "I imagine she, along with the new board, will play the same role for countless others now. SAJA is lucky to have her at the helm."

During Kalita 's two years as president, SAJA rose to new levels: launching a mentoring program, increasing the number of nationwide chapters, reaching out to news organizations during times of crisis and calm to help facilitate coverage of South Asia and its diaspora, and expanding SAJA's annual convention to include a job fair.

Kalita will continue to be an active member of SAJA, concentrating on fundraising for scholarships that encourage young South Asians to enter the media.

Deepti Hajela, who is a reporter for the AP's New York City metro bureau, was raised in New Jersey. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with bachelor's and master's degrees, and has been working for the AP since 1996. She has been on the SAJA Board since its inception and served as convention chair for several years, taking it from a one-day conference to an international four-day event that has featured such headliners as Peter Jennings of ABC News; author Salman Rusdhie; Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek; Rena Golden of CNN International; Peter Bhatia of The Oregonian; Jai Singh of CNet News.com; Paul Steiger of The Wall Street Journal and Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo.

Led by Vikas Bajaj, SAJA and its partner, SAJA Group, Inc., are preparing for the annual convention, which will take place June 16-19, 2005, at Columbia University in New York. More than 1,000 journalists and guests from around the U.S., Canada, South Asia and Europe are expected to gather for a series of workshops, panels and networking events -- highlighted by a gala dinner and the SAJA Journalism Awards (including the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Reporting on South Asia). Details of the convention can be found on the SAJA Web site: http://www.saja.org/convention2005.html

For this year's SAJA Journalism Awards, a special category honoring coverage by U.S. and Canadian media outlets of the tsunami disaster has been added. Unlike other categories, which are for calendar year 2004, this category (honoring work in print, TV, photography, new media and opinion writing) will be extended till Jan. 31, 2005 and will include all the countries affected by the tsunami, not just South Asia itself. See the awards section of SAJA.org -- http://www.saja.org/awards.html -- for more information.

2004 was a landmark year for SAJA as it grew in influence and scope. The dramatic increase in the South Asian population in the United States and growing importance of U.S.-South Asian relations has seen a huge growth in the coverage of the community and the region. As a result, SAJA serves as a resource for journalists, community organizations and members of the public trying to understand various complex issues. The tsunami disaster showed what SAJA can do for the community at a time of international tragedy: from helping journalists find sources on the ground through the SAJA Freelance Forum -- http://www.saja.org/freelance.html to finding U.S. and Canadian experts -- http://www.saja.org/tsunami.html -- to our own members who went to cover the crisis -- http://www.saja.org/tsunamijournos.html.

Hajela, Bajaj and other members of the board will focus on improving the quality and reach of our programs. SAJA's e-mail lists -- http://www.saja.org/lists -- and its newsy, resource-filled Web site -- http://www.saja.org/ -- offer the public a chance to learn about South Asia and South Asian America.

SAJA Board 2005
saja@columbia.edu * 212-854-5979

Officers

PRESIDENT:
Deepti Hajela, newswoman, The Associated Press (NYC)
VICE PRESIDENT & CONVENTION CHAIR:
Vikas Bajaj, business & government writer, Dallas Morning News (Dallas)
TREASURER:
John Laxmi, freelance writer and adjunct faculty, New York University
(NJ)
SECRETARY:
Monika Mathur, news researcher, Associated Press (NYC)
ADMINISTRATOR:
Sreenath Sreenivasan, professor, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
and tech reporter, WABC-TV (NYC)

General Board Members
Aseem Chhabra, freelance writer (NYC) - SAJA chapters coordinator
Sandeep Junnarkar, Weil Visiting Professor of Journalism, Indiana
University in Bloomington and freelance writer (Bloomington, Indiana) -
SAJA Journalism Awards chair
Aparna Mukherjee, Knight-Bagehot Fellow, Columbia University (NYC) - SAJA
student affairs coordinator
Anita Shah, producer/director, Granada Television New York
Vandana Sinha, project manager & associate web editor, Donald W.
Reynolds,
National Center for Business Journalism, American Press Institute
(Reston, Virginia) - SAJA Washington, DC, chapter coordinator

Resources:

Deepti Hajela, president: sajadeepti@yahoo.com
Bio & photo: http://www.saja.org/hajela.html
Vikas Bajaj, vice president and convention chair: vikasbajaj@gmail.com
Bio & photo: http://www.saja.org/bajaj.html
John Laxmi, treasurer: johnlaxmi@aol.com
Bio & photo: http://www.johnlaxmi.com/
Monika Mathur, secretary: mathumonika@hotmail.com
Bio & photo: http://www.saja.org/monikamathur.html
Sreenath Sreenivasan, administrator: sree@sree.net
Bio & photo: http://www.sree.net/

SAJA Convention Planning
http://www.saja.org/convention2005.htmlsaja@columbia.edu or 212-854-5979
Convention Sponsorship Information
http://www.saja.org/sponsorship.html
SAJA Membership Information
http://www.saja.org/membership.html

ABOUT SAJA
http://www.saja.org/

SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association, was founded in March 1994 as a networking group for journalists of South Asian origin in New York City. It has grown into an organization serving more than 1,000 journalists working for leading newspapers, magazines, broadcast networks, and new media outlets in various cities in the US and Canada. It is headquartered at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

The organization is best known for its resource-filled Web site, SAJA.org, which includes the SAJA Stylebook for Covering South Asia and the South Asian Diaspora -- http://www.saja.org/stylebook -- ("Learn to tell your Hindi from Hindu, and much, much more"), as well as the annual SAJA Journalism Awards, which recognize outstanding coverage of South Asia and excellence in reporting by South Asian journalists and students in the U.S. and Canada (including the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Coverage of South Asia). The deadline for 2005 is Monday, March 28, 2005. More information on the awards: http://www.saja.org/awards

Each year, more than 1,000 journalists and others attend the SAJA Convention in New York. The 2005 convention will take place June 16-19 (Fri- Sun), 2003, at Columbia University. Details of the convention: http://www.saja.org/convention2005.html

Since 2004, SAJA supports and collaborates closely with SAJA Group, Inc., a 501 (c)(3) organization, in providing a wide range of educational, information and training services to journalists and other members of the public interested in South Asia and South Asians.

The New York chapter hosts monthly meetings in Manhattan with distinguished guest speakers, as well as various career-oriented panels. Other chapters are in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Membership forms, career and reporting tips, profiles of 200+ members, and additional information are available at http://ww.saja.org/.

For questions about SAJA not addressed on the Web -- at http://www.saja.org/ -- contact saja@columbia.edu or 212-854-5979

ABOUT SAJA GROUP, INC

SAJA Group, Inc. is a non-profit organization, created to provide a stronger and more flexible structural framework to carry out the mission and activities of the South Asian Journalists Association.

Working with the support of and in close collaboration with the South Asian Journalists Association, SAJA Group, Inc. conducts a variety of programs and activities open to the public, including an annual journalism convention and job fair, journalism awards, student scholarship programs, journalism mentorship program, and other activities of interest to journalists and individuals interested in South Asia and South Asians.

SAJA Group, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation under Section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Donations to SAJA Group, Inc., net of any consideration received, are deductible as charitable contributions in accordance with and to the extent permitted by the Internal Revenue Code. Donors must consult their financial or tax advisor concerning tax- deductibility of contributions and payments. SAJA Group, Inc.'s EIN Number is 55-0844632; NY State Charities Bureau Registration Number: 20-70-28.

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: SAJA's new president, Deepti Hajela, is available via phone till Tuesday, Jan. 25 at 6 pm ET at 201-452-6306 before she goes on an overseas trip; she will continue to be available at sajadeepti@yahoo.com till Friday; new VP Vikas Bajaj, is available at 214-977-8389 and vikasbajaj@gmail.com -- photos available at http://www.saja.org/pr-board2005.html


Source: South Asian Journalists Association

CONTACT: Prof. Sreenath Sreenivasan of South Asian Journalists
Association, +1-646-391-3526

Web site: http://www.saja.org/


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