Meet our speakers
Deepak Adhikari
Nepalcheck.org, Editor
Deepak Adhikari is the editor of NepalCheck.Org, a leading fact-checking website in Nepal. Before his role at NepalCheck.Org, Adhikari held the position of editor at South Asia Check, a pioneering fact-checking outlet in the region. During this time, he played a pivotal role in leading Nepal's first research into gendered disinformation in collaboration with Panos South Asia. Adhikari has reported for global news agencies such as AFP and dpa from Nepal and freelance for outlets including The New York Times, Al Jazeera English, Nikkei Asia, The Caravan, Himal Southasian. He has also written The Basics of Fact-checking guide for Tactical Tech's Exposing the Invisible.
John Alexander
Logically, Technical Programme Manager (AI Solutions)
I started my career with a PhD in Machine Learning before I transitioned to the software industry, where my focus was on crafting AI-driven solutions that aimed to enhance customer experiences, with a particular emphasis on natural language generation and understanding technology. Today, I hold the position of Technical Program Manager for AI Solutions at Logically, where our mission is to empower fact-checkers, platforms, analysts, and a myriad of professionals with cutting-edge innovations in AI.
Sneha Alexander
MEEDAN, Program Manager
Sneha Alexander is Meedan's Program Manager for APAC and works with groups in the region to design programmatic initiatives that aims to make the internet a safe and equitable space. She has previously worked as fact-checker cum policy analyst with BOOMLive and data journalist with Mint in India.
Alina Amir
Arus Academy, CEO
Alina is the co-founder and CEO of Arus Academy, a social enterprise that designs relevant & meaningful learning experiences through multidisciplinary approaches. Arus’ programmes cover financial, media & information, and digital literacies with global citizenship education themes for teachers and students to explore learning in real-world contexts. Arus has impacted more than 100,000 students and 70,000 teachers across Malaysia through its in-person and virtual programmes, with more than a million access to its online content. She also led and designed a media literacy course benefiting more than 4,000 educators under the Media Education for All initiative by Arus.
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Peerapon Anutarasoat
Sure And Share Center MCOT, Fact-Checker & Manager
After a decade as a journalist, he founded ชัวร์ก่อนแชร์ (Make Sure Before You Share), a fact-checking program on MCOT TV Channel in 2015. The program aims to help people by creating and providing easy-to-understand facts about topics on social media, both through social media and mass media. He also develops literacy-improving projects, content, and activities to protect people from misinformation, scams, and cyberthreats. As of November 2023, the program has over 2,400 videos with a total of over 2 million followers/subscribers on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and LINE.
Jen Aquino
Probe, Documentary Producer, Managing Director
Jen Aquino is a Filipino journalist with over 13 years of diverse experience spanning various facets of media production. Her extensive expertise encompasses overseeing production, news reporting, documentary producing, and fact-checking. Currently, Jen is Probe's Managing Director. Under her leadership, Probe embarked on a successful fact-checking campaign in collaboration with content creators. Her team's commitment to accuracy led Probe to become a proud signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), a testament to the organization's unwavering dedication to integrity and the dissemination of verified information.
Santi Indra Astuti
MAFINDO, Digital Literacy Activist
Lecturer on the Faculty of Communication Science, Islamic University of Bandung (UNISBA), Indonesia. Joined MAFINDO (Masyarakat Anti Fitnah Indonesia), a community-based organization based on fact-checking and creating a healthy information ecosystem since 2016. Co-founded JAPELIDI (Indonesia Digital Network of Digital Literacy Activists) in 2017. Currently, she is managing TULAR NALAR, a digital literacy projects aimed to build critical thinking targeting education communities (2020), elderly (2022), and youth (2023). The project which powered by Google.org had been escalated to reach 1.6 millions of youths and elderly. Email: santi.indraastuti@gmail.com
Dulamkhorloo (Duuya) Baatar
Nest Center for Journalism Innovation and Development NGO, Head of NGO
Dulamkhorloo (Duuya) Baatar works to help bridge international journalism practices with Mongolian journalists and media organizations through the Nest Center for Journalism Innovation and Development NGO which she founded three years ago. One of Nest Center's flagship initiatives is the Mongolian Fact-checking Center, Mongolia's first IFCN signatory fact-checking center. The organization believes that accessible and reliable information saves lives and improves livelihoods. Nest Center targets its operations toward building an accountable information ecosystem by working with both information creators and consumers through network building initiatives, public awareness raising campaigns.
Trushar Barot
Meta, Integrity Partnerships Lead, India
Trushar leads the fact-checking program for Meta in India, covering Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. He is a former journalist, with over 20 years experience in print, radio, online, TV and digital.
Lars Bestle
International Media Support (IMS), Regional Director for Asia
Lars Bestle has been engaged with media, tech and access to information in Asia for over 20 years, and currently works as Asia Director for International Media Support (IMS). Previously he was engaged for the UN Development Programme (UNDP) as regional advisor for Asia. For IMS - an international media development organisation – Lars oversees work in programme countries across Asia. Media and journalism startups are a core focus area of the IMS Asia team under Lars’ leadership, promoting public interest journalism through support to start-ups, peer-to-peer sharing of best practices on sustainable business models, countering disinformation and the safety of journalists.
Snigdha Bhardwaj
Google, Global Head Generative AI, News & Assistant: Trust & Safety
Snigdha Bhardwaj is the Global Head of Generative AI, News & Assistant within Trust & Safety in Google. Snigdha is responsible for leading a global team of professionals who implement and enforce content moderation policies for Google's Search, Assistant and Generative AI products, like Bard, SGE and more. Based in Singapore now, Snigdha has 8 years of experience in Google, and has helped set the vision and strategy for teams leading and influencing product's roadmap.
Devendra Raj Bhattarai
Kantipur Publications Pvt. Ltd., Assistant Editor
Devendra Bhattarai is an investigative journalist with 23 years of experience. He has done extensive in-depth stories on foreign affairs, labor migration issues, human rights and Bhutanese refugees' issues for a long time with Kantipur National Daily, most popular newspaper in Nepal. He also brought into light the untold stories of Nepali migrant workers in Gulf countries when he was based in Qatar as the bureau chief for Kantipur Daily. He also helped to expose the human trafficking nexus operating from India and Nepalis workers being trafficked not only to Indian brothels for prostitution but also to African Countries like Kenya and Tanzania.
Bertha Chan
Google, APAC Engagement Lead Trust & Safety Global Engagements
Bertha drives engagements in the APAC region to deliver Trust & Safety narratives on content responsibility for Google, and to seek insights and feedback on Google’s products and policies. Her work is critical to helping T&S understand evolving external expectations, perceptions and concerns around societal/user risks and preparing T&S for oversight, regulation and necessary mitigations.
Premesh Chandran
Open Society Foundations Asia Pacific, Regional Executive Director
Premesh Chandran is the Regional Program Director for the Asia Pacific Regional Office responsible for leading the design and implementation of strategies that maximize our effectiveness in supporting human rights and expanding democratic inclusion in the Asia Pacific region.Premesh provides Open Society with a nuanced understanding of the social, economic, and political factors that drive change across the region, coupled with an entrepreneurial and problem-solving approach grounded in his business experience. He has expertise in new media and technology and understands the importance of analytics in shaping strategy. Prior to joining the Open Society Foundations, Premesh spent more than two decades successfully leading efforts to protect and promote free speech and independent journalism in Malaysia. He is the co-founder and former CEO of Malaysiakini.com, Malaysia’s most popular independent news website. Despite operating in a challenging political environment, Chandran oversaw the expansion of Malaysiakini’s readership to more than 8 million people in English, Malay, Chinese, and Tamil. Chandran also co-founded Asia Mobiliti, a technology company focused on improving public transportation and logistics. Chandran is a TED senior fellow and has served as a business coach to more than 60 companies. In 2010, he received the Asia Foundation’s Chang-Lin Tan Fellowship.
Claire Chen
Taiwan FactCheck Center, Deputy Editor-in-Chief
I am the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Taiwan Fact-Check Center. My main responsibilities include debunking rumors and media literacy, dedicated to improving Taiwan's information ecosystem. Prior to entering the fact-checking field, I worked as a reporter covering politics and medicine, accumulating a total of 10 years of experience in journalism.
Summer Chen
Taiwan FactCheck Center, Chief Editor
Summer Chen is the Editor-in-Chief of Taiwan FactCheck Center. Taiwan FactCheck Center is the first fact-checking organization, collaborating with Facebook, Yahoo, and LINE in the Chinese-speaking world since 2018, Due to political geolocation. Before being a fact checker, she was a journalist for a daily economic newspaper. She started to be a fact checker in May 2019. She leads the TFC team to fight several battles against mis/disinformation. TFC won the Best Corrected award of Global Fact7 and was an initiative of CoronaVirusFacts Alliance in 2020. Now She is leading the team to combat mis/disinformation ahead of the 2024 Presidential Election.
Pauline Chen
Taiwan FactCheck Foundation, Director of Education Department
Joined Taiwan FactChecking Foundation in November 2021. Managing the 'Taiwan Media Literacy Program' funded by Google.org. Key executor connecting various information ecosystem partners in Taiwan. Bringing a decade of media expertise, I've worked as a reporter, editor, and anchor. I deliver approximately 20 media literacy-related talks annually, reaching out to audiences in public libraries, schools, and indigenous communities. I share insights and experiences from my years in journalism. Continuously dedicating myself to contribute to a better information environment in Taiwan.
Ka Yue Cheng
Factcheck Lab, Executive Editor
Cheng Ka Yue is the founding editor of Factcheck Lab, a fact-checking organization from Hong Kong which is currently an IFCN verified signatory and a partner of Meta's third party fact-checking program. Previously he was an editor and staff writer at the Hong Kong bureau of The News Lens.
Tala Chmiel
Google, Communications Manager
Tala is a communications manager at Google Asia Pacific, looking after corporate communications areas such as content responsibility and AI policy for the Asia Pacific region. With more than a decade of communications experience, Tala has helped some of the world's leading corporations in Asia and the United States navigate topics such as digital responsibility, data privacy, cybersecurity and accessible innovation. Her expertise lies in managing communications across geographies, building consensus among teams and engaging audiences through people-centered storytelling.
Ching Yee Choo
Google News Initiative, Southeast Asia Teaching Fellow
Ching Yee is Google News Initiative’s Southeast Asia Teaching Fellow. With more than a decade’s experience in journalism, she has worked across different beats and reported for publications - both offline and online - in Malaysia and Australia, before delving into fact-checking and open-source investigations. She was the first fact-checker for Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Kuala Lumpur.
Yvonne T. Chua
University of the Philippines, Associate Professor
Yvonne T. Chua is an associate professor of journalism at the University of the Philipines. She has been associated with several fact-checking initiatives in the Philippines and has done research on disinformation, media and democracy.
Bryce Corbett
Squiz Kids, Director
Bryce is the Director and host of Squiz Kids - Australia's number one daily news podcast for kids. He is a journalist of some 25 years' experience - having worked in newsrooms in Australia, the UK and France. He has worked as a print, magazine, radio and TV journalist - and is now an award-winning podcaster. He is passionate about media literacy - and has developed with his Squiz Kids colleagues a free media literacy resource for elementary school kids called 'Newshounds'. He lives in Brisbane with his wife Shay and their two kids.
Risa de Sagun
Google, Strategic Partnerships Development Manager
Risa is in the APAC Product Partnerships team. She is passionate about leveraging technology to create innovation and positive social change.
Clair Deevy
Meta, Director, Social Impact, WhatsApp
With Meta since 2015, Clair has also held roles as WhatsApp Director Public Policy APAC and Facebook Director of Community Affairs for Asia Pacific and Latin America. Working in the field of policy, communications, and community partnerships for more than 20 years Clair’s professional and volunteer experience includes work in Government, NGOs, private sector and corporate foundations.
Himani Detwani
Google, Strategic Partnerships Development Manager, Search and Bard
Himani currently leads Google Trust and Bard partnerships in India. She has been at Google for 9 years with diverse experience across Parrtnerships for Google Search, Travel, Hardware and Advertisment.
Wahyu Dhyatmika
Tempo Digital, CEO
Wahyu Dhyatmika is the CEO of Tempo Digital. He joined Tempo's newsroom in 2001 as the East Java correspondent and served as editor-in-chief for Tempo Weekly News Magazine in 2019-2021. Wahyu believes in journalism as a public good and a key component in a healthy and robust information ecosystem. He led the Panama Papers reporting in Indonesia in 2015, and in 2017, along with several editor-in-chiefs of independent media in Indonesia, founded IndonesiaLeaks.id; a platform for whistle-blowers. In 2018, Wahyu was involved in the creation of CekFakta.com, a collaborative fact-checking initiative. He was a Nieman Fellowship recipient (Harvard University) in 2014.
Rakesh Dubbudu
Factly, Founder and CEO
Rakesh Dubbudu is the founder of ‘FACTLY’, a well-known civic-tech, fact-checking, and public data initiative from India. Factly's work is primarily centered around the intersection of data/information consumption & technology. Factly has been at the forefront of developing cutting-edge technology products relevant to the media & fact-checking ecosystem. Under Rakesh’s leadership, Factly won numerous awards. Rakesh also has many awards to his credit, including the Distinguished Alumnus Award from NIT Warangal, his alma mater, the youngest person to win such an award.
Govindraj Ethiraj
BOOM, Founder
Govindraj Ethiraj is a television & print journalist and also Founder of IndiaSpend & FactChecker.in, data Journalism and fact check initiatives. He also anchors seasonal shows on Indian news television – recent ones being Aegons of Business on BloombergQuint and `Policy Watch’ on public service broadcaster Rajya Sabha or RS TV. Previously, he was Founder-Editor in Chief of Bloomberg TV India, a 24-hours business news service launched out of Mumbai in 2008. Prior to setting up Bloomberg TV India, he worked with Business Standard newspaper as Editor (New Media) with a specific mandate of integrating the newspaper’s news operations with its digital or web platform. He also spent around five years each with CNBC-TV18 & The Economic Times. He is a Fellow of The Aspen Institute, Colorado, a McNulty Prize Laureate 2018 & a winner of the BMW Foundation Responsible Leadership Awards for 2014.
Hinata Furukata
Classroom Adventure, Representative
A prodigious talent from Japan, has soared to impressive heights as the National Champion and a formidable 4th place contender at the World Championship in the Youth Verification Challenge, proudly hosted by the Google News Initiative in 2022. This prestigious accolade fueled his fascination with fact-checking, leading to the inception of 'Classroom Adventure'—his groundbreaking initiative which aims to empower future generations with the skills of fact-checking in a new innovative approach. As its founder, Hinata is driven by a commitment to develop content that inspires young minds in middle and high school, fostering a new generation of critical thinkers and truth-seekers.
Daisuke Furuta
Japan Fact-check Center, Editor-in-chief
Daisuke Furuta is the editor-in-chief of the Japan Fact-check Center(JFC). He started his career at The Asahi Shimbun and then moved to BuzzFeed as a founder and editor-in-chief of its Japan edition. In 2019, he left BuzzFeed and set up his own company, “Media-collab," to support Japanese media for digital transformation. He worked for Google News Lab from 2020-2022 as a teaching fellow and then was named the first editor-in-chief of JFC in October 2022. He is a board member of the Digital Journalist Education Institute(D-JEDI).
Febrina Galuh
The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Indonesia, Executive Director
Febrina is the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Indonesia's Executive Director, with over twelve years of dedicated service, played a key role for AJI's partnership with AMSI and Mafindo, resulting in the establishment of CekFakta.com in 2018, a groundbreaking collaborative fact-checking initiative for Indonesia. She actively led the development and supervision of fact-check training, benefiting over 39,000 individuals, including journalists, students, academics, and the public. Febrina has also been actively engaged in the development of AJI's journalist violence monitoring platform and fostering collaborations within the Southeast Asia press freedom coalition.
Kritika Goel
Logically Facts, Head of Editorial Operations, India
A journalist and a fact checker, Kritika is a news buff and was Deputy Editor (Fact Check) at The Quint in her previous role. She managed a team of Hindi and English fact checkers, and worked on several projects focusing on promoting media and digital literacy among women and young adults in India. She has a keen interest in national politics and enjoys writing on the subject. In her current role, she heads the editorial operations at Logically Facts and manages a team of about 20-22 fact-checkers and editors. She enjoys working at the intersection of AI and fact-checking to explore ways that can help mitigate the harms of mis/disinformation in the society.
Parul Goswami
DataLEADS, Senior Program Manager
Parul Goswami leads one of the largest fact-checking initiatives in India, collaborating with journalists, newsrooms, and media institutes against misinformation and supporting them with upskilling opportunities.
Sam Gregory
WITNESS, Executive Director
helps ensure we are better prepared globally for deepfakes and deceptive AI. He is an expert on the power of smartphone witnessing of human rights crises, generative AI and deepfakes, and innovations in preserving trust, authenticity and evidence in an era of increasingly complex audiovisual communication and deception.
In 2018, Sam initiated the first globally focused effort to “Prepare, Don’t Panic” (gen-ai.witness.org) around deepfakes and synthetic media. He believes it's critical that these advances in generative AI are grounded, not in hype, but in the needs and realities of frontline journalists and human rights defenders globally. While seeing may not be believing we must find ways to defend our capacity to see and hear what matters. This work has directly influenced platform policies affecting millions, emerging technologies for trust and public discussion of who and what to prioritize. Recently WITNESS has piloted a Deepfakes Rapid Response Taskforce for fact-checkers and journalists globally.
As the Executive Director of WITNESS Sam leads the organization’s strategic plan to “Fortify the Truth” and champions WITNESS’ global team of activists and partners who support millions of people using video and technology globally to protect and defend human rights. From 2010-18 he taught the first Harvard course on participatory media and human rights and he was the lead editor of the guidebook, 'Video for Change: A Guide for Advocacy and Activism'.
Sam has served on the Technology Advisory Board of the International Criminal Court, co-chaired the Partnership on AI’s Expert Group on AI and the Media, and led the Threats and Harms Taskforce of a leading coalition to develop standards for media provenance. He has testified on AI and deepfakes before the US Congress and to the National AI Advisory Council, given a TED talk about how to prepare better for deepfakes, written for WIRED and The Hill and a range of academic journals, and is frequently interviewed by major media.
Hlalani Gumpo
Africa Check, Impact Manager
Hlalani Gumpo carries over 14 years of experience in monitoring and evaluation across various sectors in the development space. She is responsible for driving the impact and research strategy for Africa Check - Africa’s first independent fact-checking organisation - in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Senegal, and supports partner organisations in a 48 member Africa Facts Network on the continent. Hlalani’s background includes work in academia such as teaching statistics and supervising university research projects. She studied Psychology and holds a PhD from the University of Cape Town.
Bharat Gupta
Jagran New Media, CEO
Bharat Gupta is the CEO of Jagran New Media a leading digital publisher group in India with over 17 websites. He has 22 years of experience in various media platforms and is focused on growing the industry ecosystem. JNM provides factual and credible content, aiming to empower people with knowledge, information, and POV towards an inclusive and progressive society. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are championed by Bharat, leading to higher innovation, growth, engagement and retention of employees and stakeholders. He also founded the Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA) to fight against misinformation, and under his guidance, VishvasNews.com has won multiple international grants and awards
Nicole Han
Meta, Integrity Partnerships Manager, APAC
Nicole manages Meta’s third-party fact-checking program across Asia Pacific. Prior to joining Meta, Nicole held regional communications roles across the international non-profit sector, including for some of the biggest environmental non-profits such as climate action group 350.org, public health organization Vital Strategies and Conservation International. In her more than a decade-long career, her communications work revolved around promoting access to accurate, and current science-based information.
Hui-An Ho
Taiwan FactCheck Center, Head of International Projects and Reporter
Hui-An Ho is the head of international projects and reporter at Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC). She is the editor of TFC's English newsletter, “TFC Disinfo Detector.” One of her favorite projects is the Youth Verification Challenge, an initiative that empowers participants to acquire digital investigative tools and media literacy skills through a series of tutorials and games, transforming them into fact-checking gurus. Before joining TFC in 2019, Hui-An spent seven years as a journalist and China correspondent for Taiwans’ Economic Daly News. Born in 1985, Hui-An grew up in New Taipei City, Taiwan. She holds a degree in industrial technology education. She currently resides in Germany.
Noa Horiguchi
Classroom Adventure, Founder
Noa Horiguchi was born and raised in the USA for 18 years, before moving to Japan. Notably, he ranked 1st in the Youth Verification Challenge in Japan and placed 4th globally. Noa currently interns at Japan Fact-check Center where he ardently combats the spread of misinformation. He has also founded "Classroom Adventure", a revolutionary initiative that transforms classrooms into a place for adventure, educating teens on misinformation in a completely new approach. At the heart of Noa's work is a profound passion: teaching the next generation the importance of questioning information and instilling them with the nessessary skills to independently uncover the truth.
Melanie Hui
Luminate, Vice President, Asia
Melanie Hui is Vice President, Asia, at Luminate. Luminate is a global foundation working to ensure that people — especially those who are underrepresented — have the information, rights, and power to influence the decisions that shape society. Melanie leads Luminate’s Asia team and strategy, a focus of which is tackling mis-and-dis-information. Melanie has had a 20-year career in philanthropy and social change. Her previous experience includes heading the Chandler Foundation. She started her career in external affairs at the World Bank, helped to establish the Asian University for Women, and led a clean water social enterprise in Bangladesh.
Zentaro Imai
Classroom Adventure, Co-founder
Born amidst the vibrant culture of Japan in 2001, Zentaro Imai embarked on a life-changing journey to Canada shortly after his middle school graduation. It was in the diverse and inclusive atmosphere of Canada where he discovered his passion for education—a seed planted while interning at an elementary school. This experience was the catalyst for his visionary venture, YOMY!, an innovative online storytelling service that captivates and educates children aged 3 to 8. Currently, Zentaro is nurturing his academic and entrepreneurial aspirations at Keio University's esteemed Faculty of Policy Management, shaping the future of educational technology.
Jency Jacob
BOOM, Managing Editor
Jency Jacob is the Managing Editor of BOOM and has worked with some of the top television and print networks in India over the last 2 decades. Jency set-up India's first fact checking newsroom in 2016 and now manages a team of 25 enterprising fact checkers across India, Myanmar and Bangladesh, who are striving to keep our social media and public space clear of misinformation and communally sensitive disinformation that can result in real-life implications. Jency is also a regular speaker at various national and international conferences, speaking about the importance of battling misinformation and the media's role in countering them with credible and factual news stories.
Ben James
AAP FactCheck, Editor
Ben is a British-born journalist, editor and author with more than a decade of experience working at news organisations in Australia and the UK. Before joining AAP, he worked as a news editor at News Corp Australia for various titles. Ben also previously worked at several UK newspapers, including The Argus in Brighton and The Sheffield Star.
Jae Chul Jung
Naeil News, Staff Reporter
"Joined Naeil News (1996)
Duke University Visiting Scholar (2013-2014)
Participated in Global Fact (7 times)
Awards: Unification Media Award, Human Rights Reporting Award etc.
Books: <Smart Fact Check>, <Fact Check Journalism>, <Fact Checking>, etc.
SNU Fact Check Center Advisory Member (2017~)
Global Fact 10 Organizing Committee Member"
Damar Juniarto
SAFEnet - Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network, Executive Director/Co-Founder
Damar Juniarto is a prominent human rights activist who is known for his work on digital rights and online freedom of expression in the Southeast Asia region. Since 2013, he took lead on promoting and protecting digital rights in Southeast Asian countries and deeply concerned with the rise of digital authoritarianism and closing (online) civic space in Southeast Asia. In 2022, an international nonprofit journalism organization Rest of the World put his name on 2022 RoW100 Global Tech’s Changemakers list. In 2021, he received Indonesia’ Press Council Award for an individual who committed to promoting press freedom in Indonesia.
Masato Kajimoto
ANNIE / The University of Hong Kong, Associate Professor
Masato Kajimoto, PhD, is an Associate Professor of journalism at the University of Hong Kong. He specialises in news literacy education, fact-checking practice, misinformation ecosystem research, and press freedom in Asia. In 2019 he founded the not-for-profit educational organisation ANNIE (Asian Network of News and Information Educators) to develop region-focused teaching and learning materials. Its flagship project is the student-driven fact-checking newsroom Annie Lab, a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network.
Rajneil Kamath
Newschecker, Founder and Publisher
Rajneil R Kamath is the founder and publisher of Newschecker, a fact checking organization and the co-founder of The Signal, a new age digital media company focusing on business and technology. He is also the Vice President of the Misinformation Combat Alliance. An alumnus of the prestigious Shri Ram College of Commerce in Delhi, he began his career in Google's ad content operations team and ended as a Public Policy and Government Affairs Analyst. Rajneil is an IVLP Fellow (a US State Department Program). He expanded Newschecker's operations to 15 regional languages across India, Nepal and Bangladesh and is currently working on policy issues related to the fact checking ecosystem in India.
Darshini Kandasamy
Malaysia Information Literacy Education (MILE), Co-founder
Darshini Kandasamy is the co-founder of Malaysia Information Literacy Education (MILE), focused on gamification and instilling media and information literacy skills in youths. She's also a multi-award-winning editor and journalist based in Kuala Lumpur. Until recently, she ran Malaysia's first subscription news email service Between The Lines — a daily email newsletter that curated, summarised and contextualised daily news. Darshini formerly worked at the globally renowned Malaysian news site, Malaysiakini, and has written for international publications such as CNN and Foreign Policy. She also currently runs Trident Media, a boutique writing, editing and media comms consultancy.
Urvashi Kapoor
Vishvas News (Jagran New Media), Senior Editor
Urvashi Kapoor is a Senior Editor at Vishvas News and contributes significantly to the fight against misinformation as a fact-checker and media literacy trainer. With a wealth of experience, Urvashi is a seasoned digital media professional who champions journalistic integrity and accuracy. Her dedication to truth and media literacy has garnered her recognition as a GNI India Training network trainer, where she imparts her expertise to promote media literacy and critical thinking. Urvashi's contributions have been acknowledged with the prestigious "40 Under 40 English Journalism" award, a testament to her excellence in the field.
Ragamalika Karthikeyan
The News Minute, Senior Lead - Audience Revenue & Special Projects
Ragamalika started her career as a journalist and was leading the editorial desk at The News Minute before making a shift to the business team. She now takes care of audience revenue and special projects for the organisation. Raga leads the InQlusive Newsrooms project for TNM, which is trying to make Indian news organisations and journalists more sensitive in their coverage of LGBTQIA+ issues, and fight gender misinformation and disinformation.
Supinya Klangnarong
COFACT Thailand, Co-Founder
Co-Founder of COFACT Thailand & Digital Thinkers Forum,
Media & Communications Policy Specialist,
Former NBTC Commissioner 2011-2016,
Honorary Board Member of The National Press Council of Thailand,
Governance Board of Thailand Consumers Council,
Ashoka Fellow 2004 & Eisenhower Fellow 2007
Recipient of the Communication for Social Change Award, School of Journalism & Communication, University of Queensland, 2006
Recipient of Woman Human Rights Defender Award, The National Human Rights Commission, 2006
Aishwarya Kumar
TikTok, Head of Regional Policy, APAC
Aishwarya is the Head of Regional Policy for Trust and Safety at TikTok. She oversees policy development for TikTok across all APAC markets. Prior to this, she served as the Global Issue Policy Lead for Mental Health and High-Risk Activities at TikTok for 2 years, where she developed policies to ensure the mental well-being and safety of our users. She has demonstrated experience with the Singapore Government, with over 6 years of experience working on industry and regulatory policy development spanning across areas such as misinformation, hostile information campaigns, and content classification. She is passionate about tech for good and digital literacy.
Cherry Tsz-yan Lai
Annie Lab at the University of Hong Kong, Supervising Editor
Cherry Lai is a Supervising Editor at Annie Lab, a student-driven fact-checking project at the Journalism & Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong (HKU Journalism) in collaboration with ANNIE. Cherry also serves as a Teaching Assistant at HKU Journalism for a few courses, including Generative AI for Media Application. Cherry holds a bachelor's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Hong Kong Shue Yan University and a master's degree in AI and digital media from Hong Kong Baptist University, and is skilled in Python programming.
Beth Lambert
Logically AI, Head of Policy and Strategic Accounts
Beth Lambert is Head of Policy and Strategic Accounts at Logically, a tech company that works with democratic governments and social media platforms to tackle misinformation and other online harms at scale using AI, accredited fact checkers, and expert open-source intelligence. She is the former Head of Counter Disinformation for the UK Government's Department for Digital. In 2021 she was Chair of the Council of Europe’s expert advisory committee on this issue. She holds a Winston Churchill Fellowship for her research on international best practice in combating foreign information manipulation and interference.
Mimi Lau
University of Hong Kong, Managing Editor of Annie Lab
Hong Kong Journalists Association, Executive Committee Member
Mimi is an assistant lecturer at HKU Journalism and the managing editor of the Annie Lab. Prior to joining the faculty, she worked as the China Correspondent for the South China Morning Post, where she covered politics and policies with a particular focus on human rights, religion, and ethnic affairs. Throughout her career spanning close to two decades, Mimi has received numerous awards for her coverage of China. Additionally, she was the host of SCMP's Inside China Podcast. Mimi also serves as an executive committee member of the Hong Kong Journalists Association.
Trinna Leong
Trindea & JomCheck, Media Consultant
Trinna was a former journalist, having reported on politics, economics and general news from the MH370 & MH17 air disasters, Rohingya refugee crises, 1MDB financial scandal, Kim Jong Nam's assassination, to Malaysia's 14th general election. She joined Google News Initiative during the pandemic and spearheaded its annual Trusted Media Summit from 2020-2023. She also designed the Youth Verification Challenge, which gamified fact-checking for Gen-Z and ran in 8 languages in 2021 & 2022. Most recently, she is part of the founding team called JomCheck, Malaysia's first fact-checking alliance promoting collaborative fact-checking between newsrooms, academics and non-profit organizations.
Irene Jay Liu
International Fund for Public Interest Media, Regional Director, Asia & the Pacific
Irene Jay Liu is Regional Director, Asia & the Pacific at the International Fund for Public Interest Media. She previously led the Google News Lab in the Asia-Pacific region and was an investigative reporter and data editor at Reuters, where she was a 2017 Pulitzer finalist in the national reporting category. Earlier, she worked at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong and as a political reporter with the Times Union in Albany, New York. Before moving to Singapore, she taught data-driven investigative journalism at the University of Hong Kong and Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Joel Luther
Duke Reporters' Lab, ClaimReview and MediaReview Project Manager
Joel Luther is the ClaimReview and MediaReview Project Manager at Duke Reporters' Lab, where he is dedicated to advancing fact-checking through structured data. He manages the ClaimReview Project and has worked to significantly increase worldwide adoption of ClaimReview, and helped to develop its new sibling for manipulated media, MediaReview. He is currently working on two of the Reporters' Lab new projects, Fact-Check Insights and MediaVault, which aim to further extend the usefulness of ClaimReview and MediaReview. Outside of work, he's an avid fitness enthusiast, engaging in weightlifting, running, rock climbing, and swimming.
Alex Mahadevan
MediaWise, Director
Alex Mahadevan is the director of MediaWise at the Poynter Institute. Since 2019, he's taught digital media literacy to thousands of teens and older adults, and trained journalists worldwide in verification and tools for digital investigations. He also co-leads the Empowering Diverse Digital Citizens Lab at Stanford. Previously he was a data journalist, audience editor and local government reporter.
Surabhi Malik
India News Lab Lead, Google News Initiative
Surabhi Malik is the News Lab Lead, India at Google where she leads partnerships and programs to counter misinformation and support newsrooms and journalists with digital upskilling opportunities. She is a former journalist and has worked in newsrooms like NDTV and the Times of India. Prior to joining Google, she was the Programs Director for India at Internews.
Eshwaren Manoharen
Analoq, Founder
Eshwaren Manoharen previously spent more than half a decade at Malaysiakini and has led the technology and product teams. He has experience working with various parts of the organisation including engineering, revenue and advertising. Now he leads Analoq to build artificial intelligence based solutions with a perspective into media and newsrooms.
Adi Marsiela
The Alliance of Independent Journalist, Coordinator of Internet Division
Adi Marsiela is a freelance journalist, digital security trainer, OSINT researcher, fact-checker and data journalism enthusiast. The last two years, I helped my organization, The Alliance of Independent Journalist (AJI) as Head of Internet Division and the Coordinator of Cekfakta.com –Indonesia’s first fact-checking collaboration platform—. I also help AJI promoting holistic safety by improving risk assessment tools platform including developing modules, trained journalists and newsroom to mitigate the risk during their work.
Gemma Mendoza
Rappler Inc, Head for Digital Services and Lead Researcher for Disinformation & Platforms
As Rappler’s Head for Digital Services and concurrently Lead Researcher for Disinformation and Platforms, Gemma Mendoza leads Rappler’s multi-pronged efforts to address disinformation in digital media, harnessing big data-supported research, fact-checking, and civic engagement. One of Rappler's pioneers, she initiated strategic projects that connect journalism and data with citizen action, particularly in relation to elections, disasters, and other social concerns. Data and community-driven projects she led have been recognized by the Data Journalism Awards. Gemma co-authored ""The Enemy Within,"" a book on military corruption and civilian neglect published by Newsbreak in 2011.
Sabariah Mohamed Salleh
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia / JomCheck, Associate Professor/ Co-founder and Head of Secretariat
Associate Professor Dr Sabariah Mohamed Salleh is an expert in media and information literacy who works with educators to empower them with media and information literacy skill. She is JomCheck’s head of secretariat and also a university supervisor with Faq Check Lab, Malaysia’s independent fact checking organisation. She has worked with UNESCO in creating modules and MOOC to inculcate media and information literacy skills for Malaysians. Sabariah received her PhD from University of Vienna in the area of Journalism and Communication Science.
Mitali Mukherjee
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Director, Journalist Programmes
Mitali Mukherjee is Director of the Journalist Programmes at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. Over the course of her journalistic career Mitali has been Consulting Business Editor at The Wire and Mint. Prior to that she was Markets Editor at CNBC TV 18 and Prime Time Anchor at TV Today and Doordarshan. Her key ares of interest are political economy, climate and gender.
Emi Nagasawa
SmartNews Media Research Institute, Associate
Emi is a researcher at the SmartNews Media Research Institute. She is in charge of media literacy education. After graduating from Aichi University of Education's Faculty of Education (obtaining an elementary school teaching license), she joined the Jiji Press. For two years starting in 2018, she gained experience as a staff member at an NPO organization in New York. In December 2020, she joined SmartNews. She currently leads the development of educational materials for media literacy, conducts visiting lectures, and oversees projects that measure the effectiveness of media literacy education.
Rahul Namboori
Factcrescendo, Co-Founder / Managing Editor
Rahul Namboori is the Co-founder and Managing Editor of Fact Crescendo, a leading IFCN-verified fact-checking organization in India and the APAC region. He plays a vital role in managing the organization's editorial activities and the reader's access to accurate, verified information. Rahul is a strong advocate for honest journalism and reporting based on facts. He also started FacTree - an initiative focused on media literacy. He strongly believes that media literacy is the key to making responsible internet users who can combat the menace of misinformation. Through his work, Rahul has made a significant impact while advocating for a world where facts prevail over fiction.
Surbhi Pandit Nangia
DataLEADS, Vice President
Surbhi Pandit Nangia is the Vice President at DataLEADS and heads the outreach and global partnerships for DataLEADS . She has been instrumental in smooth coordination and managing of all the projects at DataLEADS including one on fact checking and media literacy with Google News Initiative, India which aims to support journalists and media educators across India in their fight against misinformation. Surbhi oversees a diverse range of projects that the organisation is currently working on and manages international collaborations and strategic partnerships.
Syed Nazakat
DataLEADS, Founder and CEO
Syed Nazakat, India, is an award-winning journalist, media entrepreneur, founder and CEO of DataLEADS, a tech and digital media company he founded to promote open data and democratization of information at scale. He has reported from over 30 countries and worked in senior positions at different media organizations. He has spearheaded one of the world’s biggest fact-checking, data journalism and media literacy training networks which has benefited thousands of organisations in Asia. He is a board member of the GIJN, representing Asia and he also serves as a Working Group Member on Artificial Intelligence and the Information space by FORUM SUR LINFORMATION ET LA DEMOCRATIE, France.
Ika Ningtyas
Alliance Independent Journalists, Secretary General
I am the secretary general of the Alliance of Independent Journalists, an organization based in Jakarta, Indonesia with almost 2,000 members. I am also the Fact Checking Coordinator at Tempo. I focus on writing, researching and developing programs on journalism, misinformation-disinformation, digital rights, freedom of expression, and journalist safety.
Septiaji Eko Nugroho
MAFINDO, Chairman
Septiaji Eko Nugroho is the co-founder and chairman of MAFINDO, the first citizen-led fact-checking organization in Indonesia, boasting more than 1000 volunteers across 43 cities. Additionally, since 2023, Septiaji has served as a Presidium Member of the DAMAI Coalition and as an advisor for the National Movement of Digital Literacy Siberkreasi.
Paolo Miguel Ordonio
Break The Fake Movement, Deputy Executive Director
Paolo Miguel Ordonio is the Deputy Executive Director of Break The Fake Movement, a civil society organization in the Philippines that champions Media and Information Literacy through initiatives on responsible digital citizenship, MIL, combating information disorder, and enabling positive participation. He began advocating MIL when he joined the government workforce as a Project Development Officer, where he took the lead in providing media literacy education to Filipinos. Pao also thrives in collaborating with grassroots communities. He works as a community development worker, providing support and training to community leaders and organizations in areas such as leadership and governance.
Ferdi Ozsoy
International Fact-Checking Network, Deputy Director
Ferdi Ferhat Özsoy is the deputy director of International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at The Poynter Institute, the premier global coalition of fact-checking organizations. Before assuming that role in June 2023, he served as IFCN program director and interim director. Before joining IFCN in 2020, he Co-Founded Turkey’s first and only Political Fact-Checking Doğruluk Payı (Share of Truth) in 2014 along with Turkey’s open data platform Veri Kaynagi (Data Source). Ferdi holds a dual degree in history and political science from CUNY Brooklyn College and an M.A. in International Relations from Istanbul Bilgi University.
Stephanie Park
YouTube, Health & News Lead, Strategy and Operations APAC
Stephanie Park is responsible for go-to-market strategy and partnerships with news and health organisations for YouTube across Asia Pacific. She executes on YouTube's efforts to elevate authoritative information-based sources in the region and is passionate about initiatives that help provide all users access to credible and helpful content.
Uma Patel
Google, News Lab Lead
Uma Patel is News Lab Lead, Australia & New Zealand, Google. Prior to joining Google, she was a Senior Consultant at FT Strategies (Financial Times) and also worked at the Associated Press in London and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as a journalist.
Arkanath Pathak
Google, Software Engineer
Arkanath is a Senior Software Engineer at Google Research, where he specializes in Media Integrity. His research centers on developing methods to intelligently extract, represent and compare the context of media online. He also works on Generative AI-derived media directly, and how it affects the future of media integrity.
Gema Gita Persada
LBH Pers (Legal Aid Center for The Press), Public Interest Lawyer
A Public Interest Lawyer at Legal Aid Center for The Press. Currently providing legal aid to the people in need in order to implement the advocacy work in regard to promoting human rights more specifically in freedom of press, freedom of expression, the rights to information and the rights to privacy. Now working on several cases regarding digital rights issues, including but not limited to the cases that happened to journalists and/or media. One of the Personal Data Protection Advocacy Strategy Guide-Book authors, a Guide-Book which was published by her organization that aimed to help Legal Aid Providers all across Indonesia in handling Personal Data Protection Violations cases.
Chan Thul Prak
Kiripost, Editor in Chief
I started as a journalist at Leisure Cambodia in 2002 and was later hired as a stringer for Spanish news wire EFE before moving on to work for Chinese news agency Xinhua. After a short stint at Xinhua, in 2004, I joined The Cambodia Daily as a journalist covering courts and general news and as an assignment editor, before leaving to work with Reuters in 2010. In 2019, I co founded Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association (CamboJA) and now serve on the board of directors there. In late November 2021, I co founded Kiripost, a media outlet covering business and tech. I am now the CEO and Editor in Chief.
Citra Prastuti
KBR, Editor-in-chief
Citra Dyah Prastuti is the Chief Editor of KBR; an award-winning media organization with a love of audio. KBR started in 1999 as Indonesia’s first independent and largest radio news agency, providing news for 300 local radio stations across 34 provinces. We expanded to digital platforms with podcasts under KBR Prime with a mission of producing ‘podcasts for curious minds’. KBR Prime is crafting an ecosystem for quality podcasts with 20 Collaborators to produce more diverse and engaging podcasts to enrich Indonesia’s podcast scene. Visit us on KBRPRIME.ID for the engaging podcasts and KBR.ID for trustworthy and inspiring news updates.
Subhra Priyadarshini
Nature India, Chief Editor
Subhra is a science journalist and Chief Editor of Nature India & Nature Portfolio's Global Supported Projects. She was a British Chevening scholar, a Robert Bosch fellow, an IREX-UNESCO fellow, a Kavli Prize Media Scholarship and BBC World Service Trust awardee, and PANOS South Asia Media Excellence Awardee. Subhra is an expert consultant to the World Health Organisation (WHO). She is the founding President of Science Journalists Association of India. Subhra trains journalists at two Google News supported initiatives to combat misinformation. She also leads a Health Ethics Communication course at Nature India.
Finsensius Yuli Purnama
Mafindo (Masyarakat Anti Fitnah Indonesia)/ Universitas Katolik Widya Mandala Surabaya, Researcher
Finsensius Yuli Purnama is currently serving as a faculty member at Universitas Katolik Widya Mandala Surabaya. In 2020, he was granted to participate as a student fellow in the Asian Graduate Student Fellowship program, administered by the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore. In 2023, Mr. Purnama was honored to be elected as an Indonesian - American Kavli Frontiers of Science fellow, hosted by the National Academy of Science. Fins also contribute to digital literacy activism as a researcher in the Mafindo. His primary research interests revolve around the fields of digital media, journalism, and democracy-related issues.
Omar Rajarathnam
International Media Support, Programme Manager
Omar is the Programme Manager, Sri Lanka for Denmark based International Media Support. He is also an adviser to SafeWebLK - Asia's first Code of Practice for internet intermediaries offering services in Sri Lanka. Omar has experience managing multi-stake holder platforms around elections and disinformation. He has also managed multiple machine aided and human intensive harmful content monitoring processes with grassroots partners which aim to better understand localised context around harmful content and uphold tech accountability in addressing the issue.
Kathryn Raymundo
Internews, Deputy Chief of Party, Initiative for Media Freedom
KATHRYN RAYMUNDO is the deputy chief of party of the Philippines' Initiative for Media Freedom, a project of Internews – a nonprofit that supports independent media in 100 countries. She has been a researcher, writer, and editor for broadcast, print, and online media outlets for over a decade. She works on journalist safety, media ethics and development, data journalism, digital rights, democracy and governance issues. Previous affiliations include the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), Center for Media Freedom & Responsibility (CMFR), Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP, Association of Philippine Broadcasters), and ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp.
Misthy Sablok
DataLEADS, Programme Manager
Misthy Sablok is an seasoned Public Relations & advocacy professional with experience over 10 years. Currently, She is working as Programme Manager at DataLEADS, heading FactShala, India's largest media literacy initiative. She oversees the development and implementation of programmes aimed at combating misinformation. Over the last three years she has built campaigns to support individuals & organizations in navigating the ever-changing landscape of media. She has engaged with communities across India to empower them with critical thinking skills, raising awareness about the societal impact of media, bias & misinformation.
Jessada Salathong
Chulalongkorn University, Assistant Professor
Jessada Salathong, PhD, is an Assistant Professor and Editor of Journal of Communication Arts, former Chairperson of MSCM Program at the Faculty of Communication Arts and former Assistant to the President for International Affairs, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. He is also a veteran international news commentator, news anchor, radio host and bi-lingual MC. He has experience working with several media including TNN and ThaiPBS in Thailand and NHK World in Japan. He is also an advisor for “Sure and Share” Center. He holds masteral and doctoral degrees in international studies from Waseda University, Japan and the first degree in environmental science from Thammasat University Thailand.
Grace Salonga
Movement Against Disinformation, Executive Director
Ms. Grace Salonga is the Executive Director of the Movement Against Disinformation (MAD). MAD is a broad non-partisan coalition of members from the academe, legal profession and civil society organizations that banded together to push back against the systematic and unregulated spread of disinformation in social media platforms. MAD files strategic litigation against red-taggers and enablers of disinformation online to create deterrence, demand accountability and promote the rule of law. Ms. Salonga is a corporate lawyer at Cruz Marcelo Tenefrancia Law Office. She graduated from the Ateneo Law School and earned her Master of Laws degree from the University of Sydney.
Qadaruddin Shishir
AFP News Agency, Fact Check Editor
This is Qadaruddin Shishir, a Bangladeshi digital investigative journalist and OSINT trainer who have been working to combat disinformation for more than seven years. I have trained more than 1000 journalists and J-School’s teachers and students in Bangladesh on digital investigation and verification. I am currently working as the Bangladesh Editor at AFP Fact Check. Previously I was in the role of editor at Boom Bangladesh, a fact checking organization headquartered in Mumbai, India. I co-founded BD FactCheck, Bangladesh’s first fact checking initiative in 2017 that consistently fought against online mis and disinformation for years.
Janjira Sombatpoonsiri
Chulalongkorn University & German Institute for Global & Area Studies (GIGA), Research Fellow
Janjira Sombatpoonsiri is an Assistant Professor at Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University, and a Research Fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA). For the latter, she is currently heading the project that investigates governments' misuse of anti-fake news against civil society in South and Southeast Asia. She has extensively researched civil society activism, digital harassment of civil society, and recently computational propaganda amidst elections. She is a member of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Civic Research Network and Digital Democracy Network; and a regional manager for the Digital Society Project.
Sofyan Sultan
SOCH Fact Check, Co-founder
Sofyan Sultan studied international relations at Brown University, political and legal theory at University College London, and Islamic societies and cultures at SOAS. Sofyan is a co-founder of Soch Media, the parent organization of Soch Fact Check, a member of Meta’s 3PFC program and Pakistan’s only local IFCN signatory. Sofyan serves on the board of a number of public policy organizations and is the current President of the Debating Society of Pakistan, an educational charity which works with hundreds of schools and universities across Pakistan.
Ayako Takada
NHK(Japan Broadcasting Corporation), Content Producer
A content director and producer at NHK for 17 years, Ayako Takada is a cross-disciplinary journalist cultivating new forms of story-telling and communication channels to engage younger and wider audiences to address otherwise forgotten issues, combining engagement journalism and cultural anthropology knowledge. Ayako began working in digital journalism in 2016 to re-brand one of NHK’s flagship shows in the digital sphere. She was driven to do so after covering Myanmar’s then-media-reform in 2012-2013. In 2021, she was a core member of the OSINT team investigating the Myanmar coup. The discovered facts are shown on TV and the website “What’s Happening in Myanmar.
Cristina Tardaguila
Lupa / Facts First, Founder
Cristina Tardáguila is a senior journalist focused on combating disinformation. Besides being the founder of Lupa, the largest fact-checking organization in Brazil, she is a senior research consultant for Equis Institute in the U.S. and a network manager for the Centre for Information Resilience in the UK. Tardáguila worked as a senior program manager at the International Center for Journalists and as the associate director of the International Fact-Checking Network. She studied Journalism at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, obtained a master's degree from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Spain, and earned an MBA in Digital Marketing from Fundação Getulio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro.
Denis Teyssou
Agence France-Presse (AFP), AFP Medialab R&D Editorial manager
After serving as a reporter and news editor at AFP, Denis has evolved towards journalism and tech projects at AFP Medialab. He is currently the innovation manager of the vera.ai (https://veraai.eu; VErification assisted by AI) EU-funded research and innovation project (2022-2025). Denis is the founder of the InVID-WeVerify verification plugin, named after two previous EU projects, and used weekly worldwide by more than 100,000 users between journalists, fact-checkers, researchers, human rights organizations, and NGOs. Denis is also a researcher on disinformation, in Information and Communication sciences, at Paris Nanterre University.
Neha Thekkar
Meta, Meta Stakeholder Engagement Manager, Content Policy
Neha builds meaningful relationships with NGOs, academics, activists, journalists, civil society organizations, thought leaders to inform and strengthen Meta’s Community Standards with diverse and nuanced views of experts across the globe. She has over 20 years of experience as a policy, partnerships and communications professional. Prior to Meta, Neha has worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), UNICEF, Al Jazeera English, Harvard University, INSEAD, and the Government of Singapore. She has a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard University.
Abhas Tripathi
Wikimedia Foundation, Trust & Safety Disinformation Manager
Abhas is the Trust & Safety Disinformation Manager at the Wikimedia Foundation. He has 12 years of experience in the technology industry, with a decade spent working in Trust & Safety at Google, TikTok and now the Wikimedia Foundation. In this time, he has worked in various roles across policy, operations and communications, with a focus on knowledge integrity issues (mis and disinformation). Abhas has a Masters in Public Policy from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.
Zevonia Vieira
Associação Jornalista Timor Lorosa’e, President
Zevonia as President of Asosiasaun Jornalista Timor Lorosa’e (AJTL), journalist and editor in media online www.neonmetin.info and also writer focusing on women's and gender issues [Rights over land, gender-based violence and environmental problems]. She also was a trainer for digital and media literacy (digital safety and physical safety), journalism (peace journalism, gender and environment) and editor and journalist in Media online focus on Gender, Human Rights, Politic and environment. As a journalist, she is also currently involved in several movements to advocate for freedom of the press and expression in Southeast Asia, internet freedom and digital rights.
Shelly Walia
The Quint, Executive Editor
A journalist for 14 years, Shelly Walia is the Executive Editor at The Quint, India's leading mobile-first digital media company. An alumna of Columbia Journalism School, she has previously worked with Quartz and Business Standard. At The Quint's newsroom, Shelly oversees all things editorial – often toggling between breaking news developments and working with reporters to tell exclusive, in-depth stories. In the last decade, she's keenly tracked the rise of disinformation, and participated in workshops to train journalists to become fact-checkers. Shelly also closely interfaces with The Quint's marketing team to strategise and execute effective campaigns to boost revenue and subscriptions.
Yudhanjaya Wijeratne
Watchdog, Chief Executive Officer
Data scientist and editor-in-chief. Once an errant journalist; previously at LIRNEasia’s Data, Policy and Algorithms team, working on misinformation, resource-poor languages, machine learning and public policy. Also writes science fiction; bylines at ForeignPolicy, Wired, Slate, and so on; Forbes 30 Under 30.
Pyi Sone Win
DVB, Senior Producer
I'm a seasoned journalist with a passion for fact-checking and media literacy. I've produced four TV programs at DVB, including DVB Fact Check, and managed the DVB YouTube channel with 1.73 million subscribers. In 2019, I led Myanmar's first Media Literacy TV program, educating the youth on social media literacy. In 2020, I initiated fact-checking before and after Myanmar's election, combating misinformation. DVB Fact Check remains a trusted source despite the 2021 military coup. Pursuing a Master of Media, I'm dedicated to journalism and fact-checking.
Lisa Wlaschek
Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Project Manager
Lisa works at the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) as a project manager since 2019. She graduated with a master’s degree in Photography Studies and Research, as well as a bachelor’s degree in Asia Studies with a minor in Japanese language before selling all her stuff in Europe to move to the beautiful city-state of Singapore.
Kai Hui Wong
Data N, Researcher
Wong Kai Hui is a Malaysian investigative journalist/researcher currently based in Taiwan. With seven years of experience in journalism, she is passionate about collaborating with newsrooms and think tanks, including Data N, to investigate information operations. She was honoured to receive the Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award in 2021. In addition to her investigative work, Wong Kai Hui also works as a freelance journalist, focusing on gender and sexuality issues, and as a commissioning editor, where she supports and collaborates with young Chinese writers in Malaysia.
Sophia Xu
AFP, Digital Training Manager for APAC
Sophia Xu leads AFP's digital journalism training programme in Asia-Pacific as the Regional Digital Training Manager for AFP Fact Check. She joined AFP in 2020 as a digital verification editor for Asia. She has been a journalist working in digital news-gathering, UGC verification, fact-checking and journalism training since 2012 in various newsrooms globally including Storyful, First Draft, Phoenix TV and HKU Journalism and Media Centre. She has trained hundreds of journalists and students in digital journalism through workshops and talks with Google News Initiative, newsrooms, NGOs and universities in Asia.
Estee Yong
Google, Senior Policy Specialist
Estee is a senior policy specialist at Google, Trust & Safety. She previously started her T&S career as the APAC regional lead covering policy writing and enforcement for legal content moderation amidst an evolving regulatory landscape. Currently, her portfolio for global legal content policies focuses on responsible decision-making approaches to Google’s compliance with local laws, while respecting international human rights obligations.