SAJA

**POLITICS & PRESS FREEDOM IN TRINIDAD & TOBAGO - The Indian Impact**

SPEAKERS :

Hon. Basdeo Pandey, Former Prime Minister, Legislator, Lawyer, Labour Leader

His Excellency Dr. Neil Parsan, Trinidad & Tobago Amb. to the US and Mexico, and Permanent representative to the OAS (Organization of American States)

Davan Maharaj, Editor of the Los Angeles Times Media Group

This LIVE webcast will look at the impact of Indians on the politics of Trinidad and Tobago during the 167 years of Indian presence in this oil rich Caribbean nation. This is the second in our 6-part series that will share a deeper understanding of the Indo-Caribbean peoples and provide story ideas and resources. This series is coordinated by SAJAer Darrel Sukhdeo @Darrel3000 * [email protected]

Another live webcast brought to you by the SAJA, South Asian Journalists Association.

**INDIA IN TRINIDAD / INDIAN IN TRINIDAD**

This webcast will look at 167 years of Indians settlement in Trinidad and Tobago, including history, culture, religion, women, education, more, and is in honor of the 50th anniversary of independence of Trinidad and Tobago.This is the first in a 6 part series that will profile and share a deeper understanding of the Indo-Caribbhean peoples.

SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association, and SAMMA, South Asians in Media, Marketing and Entertainment Association, present the latest in their global conversations with some of the biggest names in the arts, business, science, sports, politics and more.

This time, a special Valentine's Day show with the editors and contributors to "Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women," a new book that has received wide acclaim. Joining us are Nusra Maznavi and Ayesha Mattu, editors and writers. More on the book at http://loveinshallah.com

Call-in live, or send your questions in advance via e-mail: [email protected] or via Twitter - @sajaHQ * follow the - hashtag #sajahq

On Feb. 1, 2003, Kalpana Chawla was one of  seven astronauts killed when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry. Kalpana's career, including her first flight in 1997, captured the imagination of people of Indian descent the world over who were excited to see someone born in a small city outside Delhi go into space.

Her name lives on in everyone she inspired as well as in a street in New York's Jackson Heights and even a hill on Mars.

To mark the ninth anniversary of her death, SAJA presents an exclusive conversation with her husband, colleagues and friends.

Join hosts Sree Sreenivasan (@sree) and Melanie Huff (@MGHuff) of Columbia Journalism School as they talk with Jean-Pierre Harrison, Kaplana's husband and author of "Edge of Time, The Authoritative Biography of Kalpana Chawla"; Steve Morse, Deep Purple guitarist, wrote "Contact Lost" after Columbia accident; Jane Miller, friend. Gaurav Goyal, friend;  Aishwarya Stanley, graduate student who is modelling her career after Kalpana's; Karen McNally, pilot. former NASA  aviation human factors researcher and flight instructor.

Call-in live or send your questions or comments via email to [email protected] or @sree or @sajahq or #sajahq

SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association, presents a conversation about the ouster of President Mohamed

Nasheed of the Maldives.

Join SAJA board members Jigar Mehta (@JigarMehta) and Sree Sreenivasan (@sree) for a webcast with experts and journalists, including:

* Bonni Cohen Shenk (@bcactual) a documentary filmmaker, is the producer, with Jon Shenk, of “The Island President,” a forthcoming film about Mohamed Nasheed. See their NYT op-ed today: http://bit.ly/xwmjO6

* Lily Jamali (@lilyjamali), 2011 SAJA Reporting Fellow, reporting on climate change in the Maldives for Public Radio

International's "The World". See her work: http://www.lilyjamali.com/the-maldives/

Other speakers being confirmed.

Topics we will discuss - we'll be taking your questions, too:

* The details of the resignation and current status of ex-President Nasheed

* Effect on global climate change initiatives led by the Maldives.

And much, much more.

Call-in live or send your questions or comments via email to [email protected] or @sree or @sajahq or #sajahq

SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association, and SAMMA, South Asians in Media, Marketing and Entertainment Association, present their annual conversation about the biggest day in American sports - from a South Asian perspective. Join us as hosts Vijay Setlur (@VijaySetlur) & Sree Sreenivasan (@sree) chat with three ESPN anchors Kevin Negandhi (@knegandhiESPN), Adnan Virk (@adnanESPN) and Zubin Mehenti;  and others (we are trying to confirm Aditi Kinkhabwala - @AKinkhabwala - NY Giants reporter for the Wall Street Journal who is covering the Super Bowl). Call in live, or send your questions to [email protected]. If you're tweeting use @sajahq and #sajahq

SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association, presents the latest in its series of high-profile webcasts - via BlogTalkRadio.com - with some of the leading South Asian names in global media, arts, entertainment, politics, sports and much more (catch the archives below)...

Join the conversation with veteran journalist RahulSingh, first editor of the Readers Digest, the only US magazine to come to India in the 1960s. Singh has also been editor of  major Indian newspapers like The Indian Express, The Indian Post and The Sunday Observer, and has contributed occasionally to The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune. Son of the formidable Khushwant Singh, he now works with NGOS on population, literacy and education and is writing a biography of Indira Gandhi for Penguin. Singh will talk with Columbia University Journalism Professor Sree Sreenivasan and former Newsweek International Contributinig Editor Vibhuti Patel who now writes for The Wall St.Journal, along with Aayush Soni, a Delhi journalist now studying at Columbia Journalism School.   Email: [email protected] or @sajaHQ on Twitter.

Stunning Indian Miniatures with John Guy 

SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association presents the latest in its series of high-profile webcasts - via BlogTalkRadio.com -  with some of the leading South Asian names in global media, arts, entertainment, politics, sports and much more.

Explore "Wonder of the Age": Master Painters of India, 1100--1900, a spectacular show of 200 Indian miniature paintings currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum (through Jan. 8), with curator John Guy, the Met's own South Asian expert. For the first time, the paintings are chronologically presented by exploding the myth of the anonymity of Indian art: 40 of the greatest Indian painters are named, and their individual styles are identified through their works via new research and scholarship. Join the conversation with Mr. Guy, who will discuss the research, the artists and their works with SAJA's Vibhuti Patel, an arts writer whose work appears in

Newsweek and the Wall St. Journal.

SAJA (@sajaHQ) and CPJ (@PressFreedom) present a conversation about the state of press freedom in Pakistan. Join Umar Cheema, who won this year's International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia director as they talk about what's happening in Pakistan today. More on Cheema below. 

Umar Cheema, a reporter with Islamabad's The News, was abducted in September 2010 by unknown assailants who stripped, beat, and photographed him in humiliating positions. Cheema's unwillingness to stay silent about his abduction and the abuses he suffered has drawn wide attention to the nationwide issue of anti-press violence in Pakistan.

Almost immediately after he was released, Cheema went on television to tell the world of the abuses and humiliation he endured at the hands of "men in police commando uniforms." He said his captors asked why he continued with his critical reporting--was he trying to discredit the government and bring back former President Musharraf? 

In the months since his kidnapping, Cheema has been harassed and threatened for his coverage of politics, national security, and corruption. In keeping with Pakistan's record of near-perfect impunity in the cases of hundreds of journalists threatened, abducted, and killed, Cheema's case remains unprosecuted and unsolved. But his courage has rallied his colleagues across the nation. An editorial in the English-language daily Dawn said, "No half-hearted police measures or words of consolation from the highest offices in the land will suffice in the aftermath of the brutal treatment meted out to journalist Umar Cheema of The News. This paper's stand is clear: the government and its intelligence agencies will be considered guilty until they can prove their innocence."

SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association, presents a webcast 12 hours after President Obama announced the death of Osama Bin Laden. 

Join SAJA for a conversation with:

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (@sharmeenochinoy), Emmy-winning filmmaker who has worked in AfPak for 10 years ("Children of Taliban" and more) and SAJA member, calling from Karachi. Omar Waraich (@OmarWaraich), Time correspondent in Islamabad.Mansoor Ijaz, former Fox analyst, calling from Geneva.

Topics we will discuss - we'll be taking your questions, too: 

The details of the US operation, including the reaction in Pakistan and Afghanistan. What's next for US military operations in AfPak? And much more.

Call-in live via phone or computer or via email: saja at columbia.edu or via Twitter: @sajaHQ - hashtag #sajaosama

Hosts:

Prof. Sree Sreenivasan (@sree) of Columbia Journalism School (@columbiajourn) and SAJA co-founderIsmat Mangla (@ismat), writer for Money magazine and SAJA Board member.Annie Khan (@anniealikhan), Pakistani journo at Columbia Umar Muhammad (@umarwrites), Pakistani journo at Columbia