Former journalist and 2017 fellow of the Australia India Youth Dialogue Mitali Mukherjee has been named director of the Reuters Institute Institute for the Study of Journalism.

With experience spanning print, TV and digital media, she has led the institute’s journalist programmes since 2022 and has been acting director since Rasmus Nielsen stepped down last October.

Her appointment was announced by Alan Rusbridger, chair of the Institute’s steering committee, and David Doyle, head of the of the University of Oxford’s Department of Politics and International Relations.

Mukherjee (pictured) is a political economy journalist with more than two decades of experience in TV, print and digital journalism. She was a Chevening fellow for the South Asia Journalism Fellowship 2020, a Raisina Asian Forum for Global Governance Young Fellow 2019 and a 2017 fellow of the Australia India Youth Dialogue. In 2020, she was nominated for the prestigious Red Ink Awards in India for two of her business stories.

Over the course of her journalistic career in India, she 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. She has been a fellow at the Observer Research Foundation where she led gender initiatives for the organisation. She also co-founded two start-ups that focussed on civil society and financial literacy.

Rusbridger said she had been outstanding as acting director and had  a clear and compelling vision for the next stage. “The Reuters Institute was always intended to be a bridge between academic research into the future of journalism and the profession itself. Her directorship comes at a time of both great danger and extraordinary transformation.

“The Institute will have a unique role to play in this transformation and couldn’t be in better hands,” he said.

Head of Oxford’s department of politics and international relations David Doyle spoke of her “incredibly exciting vision” for the Institute, building on its tremendous success.

Reuters Institute receives core funding from the Thomson Reuters Foundation.