Rajneesh Bhandari is the founder, chief editor, and CEO of the Nepal Investigative Multimedia Journalism Network (NIMJN). He oversees investigations and training at NIMJN.
Rajneesh is an award-winning and experienced multimedia journalist, investigative reporter, filmmaker, and educator who has worked with major news outlets around the world.
His multimedia work on different issues have appeared in The New York Times, National Geographic, Aljazeera, AJ+, BBC Reel, Contrast VR, NPR, Fusion, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, QuickTake by Bloomberg TRT World, and other outlets as well.
In 2019, he worked as the investigations editor for the “Strengthening the Capacity of Nepali Journalists in Investigative Reporting” program and trained 60 reporters in Nepal on investigative multimedia reporting and edited their work.
He has also worked as the data and multimedia editor for the Journalists for Transparency’s investigative reporting website J4T.org. He also led a multimedia team of the European Journalism Center supported news website.
Rajneesh worked at Nepal’s top Kantipur Television Network (KTV) for seven years before moving to independent journalism. His best-known investigative story that was aired on KTV showed how some of the lawmakers were misusing their diplomatic passports. That story won him an award the KTV.
As a Fulbright Humphrey fellow, he studied investigative reporting, data journalism and documentary filmmaking at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. He graduated in Multimedia Journalism from Ateneo De Manila University and has earned a Master’s in Mass Communication and Journalism and Political Science from Tribhuvan University in Nepal.
He has conducted multimedia reporting training for South Asian journalists with the International Center for Journalists and the Thomson Reuters Foundation on topics ranging from video journalism to reporting with social media. He also coordinated Media Gufa, an experiential event where journalists report news stories using social media, isolated in a room for 72 hrs. He was awarded Online News Association’s MJ Bear Fellowship for his contribution towards digital journalism in Nepal. He is a Fulbright-Humphreys alumnus.
He teaches multimedia applications, online media, and television production at colleges in Nepal.
He is the recipient of the Themis Speak-up Award 2022.
