Dhanya Rajendran is an award-winning Indian journalist, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The News Minute, a digital newsroom focusing on the five south Indian states. She has over three decades of experience in print and television media, and has previously worked with Times Now and The New Indian Express.
Dhanya is also the chairperson[1] of DIGIPUB News India Foundation, a network of digital media organisations, as well as a member of The Network for Women in Media, India.
She is a recipient of multiple awards and accolades — including the prestigious Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Woman Mediaperson[2][3][4] (2022) and the Red Ink Award for Journalistic Excellence[5], and was named[6] in Fortune India’s “40 Under 40” list[7] in 2018. She has also been nominated[8] by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) for press freedom award under the Impact category.
Dhanya Rajendran started her career by working for Kerala's first 24-hour news channel India Vision in 2003. In 2004, she moved to The New Indian Express in Chennai. She subsequently moved to working for Times Now as a reporter in 2005 and went on to become its bureau chief of South India. She founded The News Minute in 2014 along with her husband Vignesh Vellore and senior journalist Chitra Subramaniam.
Dhanya Rajendran has amassed several awards in her career. She was named[6] as one of India's best entrepreneurs in Fortune magazine's 40 under 40 list[7] in 2018. She was also awarded Namma Bengaluru media person of the year in 2017[10].
She received the prestigious Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Woman Mediaperson for 2022[2][3][4]. The award is administered every year by The Media Foundation, named after Chameli Devi Jain, a freedom fighter and a community reformer who went to jail during the freedom movement[11].
The same year, she was awarded the 2022 National RedInk Award for ‘Journalist of the Year’ by the Mumbai Press Club. She was given the award for leading her team in exposing the tampering of voter data in Karnataka ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections[5].
In 2025, she was given the prestigious Prof Maxwell Fernandes Journalism Award, for building The News Minute into a bold and independent news platform that effectively harnesses new media technologies. The award was instituted in memory of Professor Maxwell Fernandes, the founding head of the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Kerala. It is jointly presented by his family and the MCJ Alumni Association.[12][13]
In 2024, ‘Project Electoral Bond’, led by three leading digital newsrooms and many independent journalists including The News Minute, collaborated to expose the hidden connections between crony capitalists and the government. Within a span of 20 days, the group produced more than 40 stories based on documents and other evidence about vast donations to political parties. This project was chosen as one of the best investigative stories of the year by Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN)[14].
She has also been nominated for the Reporters without Borders (RSF) Impact Prize of the Year 2025 from India for her full-blown fight for press freedom in India. The Impact Prize recognises media outlets, journalists, and NGOs whose work has positively influenced journalistic freedom, independence, or pluralism, or has successfully raised awareness about these principles[15][16].
Digital ethics and online harassment
Dhanya Rajendran has often had to face online harassment on account of her work. In 2017, she faced a barrage of abuse on Twitter — all for expressing an opinion about Sura, a 2010 Tamil film she did not like. Her opinion about the film starring Vijay, a popular Tamil actor, angered his fans. Dhanya's phone crashed after it could not handle close to 31,000 tweets spread across a couple of minutes. A hashtag was created just to abuse her, and started trending.
Dhanya filed a complaint with the cyber crime branch of the Chennai police. In response, an FIR was filed in the case.
MK Stalin, the leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the current chief minister of Tamil Nadu, also issued a statement against the misogynistic threats. Despite deleting the original tweet, the violence continued. The Network for Women in Media, India and International Federation of Journalists issued statements in support of Dhanya and condemned the online harassment she had to face. Finally, Vijay issued a statement asking his fans to stop the online harassment against Dhanya.
The Chennai police investigated Ramkumar, one of the accused, a Vijay fan and a Tamil Nadu resident in connection with the online harassment. He apologised for his deed after the police met his mother and the denial of his bail by the Madras High Court.
When she reported about godman Swami Nityananda being accused of sexual abuse, she had to face sexualized harassment on social media from the followers of Nithyananda's cult. In response to her reportage, the followers made several news videos by calling her choicest of abuses including presstitute, anti-national among others.
Dhanya has been vocal about online harassment faced by women journalists on the field. Immediately after former chief minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalitha's death, she wrote a piece about how she was molested by one of her security men when she was out to do stories around election coverage.
She reacted strongly against the harassment faced by women journalists reporting about the entry of women in Sabarimala. In 2019, she issued a strong statement in support of women journalists protesting against harassment of the secretary of the Thiruvananthapuram Press Club against a woman journalist by saying: “If you touch one of us, we will retaliate. No longer your fiefdom.”
She has also come out in support of women sharing their stories during the Me too movement in India by consistently featuring several stories about the issue and also speaking out about it.
Dhanya Rajendran has also come out against sensationalism in news media by reflecting upon her own experiences as a journalist and the pressures that compel journalists to resort to digging out voyeuristic information in cases related to 'sexual abuse'. She has said that journalists should exercise restraint and shouldn't publish graphic details of a sexual crime since it is not of use to anyone, least of all to the victim or the survivor.
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