Editor, Deutsche Welle
Akanksha Saxena is a multiple award-winning international journalist currently working as an editor with Germany’s international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle. She has more than 13 years of experience as a journalist with major broadcasting networks like Deutsche Welle, the BBC and TRTWorld
Her main focus is on political, social and environmental issues affecting South Asian societies, including the dangers posed by growing right-wing nationalism.
She produces long-form video reportages from India and the wider region.
At DW Hindi, she also moderates a couple of digital programs like “Aao Baat Karein” (Let’s Talk) and an interview series about women trailblazers from India.
Akanksha also trains young journalists from India as part of programs organized by the DW Akademie. Her write-ups have appeared in the German media.
She has won several awards in recognition of her work, including three consecutive Laadli Media Awards for gender sensitivity in her work and a Silver at the World Media Festivals in 2023 and a Silver at WAN-IFRA at South Asia digital media awards.
An episode of the DW’s digital series “Choices – Dare 2 Dream” she directed also won a Gold at the New York Festivals, 2022.
She is also a 2024 ICFJ’s Health innovation fellow covering stories on the intersections of health and tech.
Before DW, she worked as a broadcast journalist for the global 24-hour news channel TRT World, headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey. There, as part of the editorial team, she oversaw production, commissioned stories and planned long-term and breaking news coverage. She won a LAADLI PF award for gender-sensitive reporting in 2021. She has been deployed for the Catalonian referendum, G7 summit and refugee crisis in Europe.
In her four-year-long career as a HEFAT trained Newsgathering Producer for BBC News in South Asia, she travelled and covered significant news and current affairs. Some notable work includes coverage of the Nepal Earthquake, Sri Lanka’s Presidential election, India’s 2014 General Election, and India’s rape crisis among other significant stories for BBC’s domestic, international TV and radio outlets as well as online, on-demand and digital platforms. She has also produced digital stories, series, and radio documentaries in addition to writing for BBC online.
