Manisha Ganguly

Manisha Ganguly (Bengali: মণীষা গাঙ্গুলী, born 13 January 1995) is an investigations correspondent at '' The Guardian'', specialising in Open Source intelligence to expose war crimes.

She previously worked as investigative documentary producer for BBC News covering conflict and international affairs. She lives in London, United Kingdom.

Early career

While living in Kolkata, India, Ganguly was recruited into journalism when she was in high school by the national newspaper The Times of India after winning a writing competition.

After the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder, Ganguly began reporting on violence against women and was subject to rape and death threats online. She was the founder and editor of feminist counterculture webzine, ''Eyezine,'' which consisted of mostly women reporting on violence against women. The website was central to documenting the campus rape which sparked the 2014 Jadavpur University protests. Its investigation into subsequent riot police assault against students sparked mass protests and shut down the city, and resulted in more than 100,000 readers in one month for the website. The webzine also came under attack from the state for reporting on human rights abuses in the Kashmir conflict.

Ganguly received a full scholarship to study a Master's in journalism at the University of Westminster in London, and moved to the United Kingdom. She considers India to be a hostile environment for women in journalism. Her first role in investigative journalism in the UK was for The Daily Telegraph.

Recent work

For the BBC, her investigative documentaries exposed double-tap attacks by Russian planes in Syria and war crimes by Turkish-backed forces in the Syrian civil war, foreign meddling, violations of the UN arms embargo, desecration of the bodies of prisoners of war and civilians in Libya, use of cluster munitions in Ukraine, human trafficking in the Middle East, uncovered the training of the killers of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, discovered China's most famous MeToo activist who had been missing. In 2022, Ganguly's investigation documented the torture of Russian anti-war prisoners in a Moscow police station and the identities of the officers, which resulted in the officers being sanctioned by the EU.

Ganguly was interviewed about her investigative reporting on Ukraine by Bellingcat, El Mundo, ARTE, L'Orient Le Jour, Marie Claire.

Ganguly investigated Team Jorge, a team of Israeli contractors led by Tal Hanan, claiming to have meddled in more 30 elections worldwide and Aims, their software to launch bot armies with the Guardian and Forbidden Stories. It resulted in the suspension of French broadcaster Rachid M'Barki of BFMTV.

She investigated NTC-Vulkan, which develops a Russian disinformation network and cyberweapons used by the Russian military and intelligence agencies as a part of the Vulkan Files. Ganguly acquired the Pentagon Leaks from Discord for the Guardian, and reported that half the special forces deployments in Ukraine consisted of UK special forces. Ganguly investigated the lineage of colonial looting of jewellery in the royal collection owned by Elizabeth II, and the British royal family. Ganguly exposed the US and Germany training of Saudi border forces accused of mass killing migrants on the Yemen border.

Ganguly has reported on transnational repression of dissidents on European soil, focussing on Saudi Arabia and Iran.

During the 2023 Israel-Hamas war, Ganguly's Instagram account was restricted by Meta while seeking blood donations for injured journalists. Ganguly led the Guardian's investigation into the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion, reporting that the crater at the blast site required kinetic energy inconsistent with a Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) aerial bomb, and was also inconsistent with an airstrike, concluding that it was "more likely to be a weapon that failed and released its payload over a wide area." She investigated damage to Gaza's hospitals including by Israeli munitions, the Jabaliya refugee camp airstrikes, conducted damage assessment of northern Gaza, and wrote that Israel appeared to be receiving munitions from a US War Reserves Stock Allies-Israel for the war in Gaza. Together with Forbidden Stories and ARIJ, Ganguly investigated the deaths of Palestinian journalists in Gaza and revealed that parts of the IDF viewed Hamas-linked journalists as legitimate targets.

Ganguly worked with a consortium of investigative journalists to uncover more than 1,000 unmarked graves of deceased migrants and refugees on the borders of Europe. The investigation was awarded the European Press Prize Special Award.

Academic work

She holds a PhD titled "Future of Investigative Journalism: The Age of Automation, A.I. & Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT)" from the University of Westminster. It is the first PhD in OSINT mapping the impact on investigative journalism. Ganguly's research also focussed on incidences of PTSD and the mental health impact of looking at graphic violence in OSINT investigations in war zones. She is a vocal proponent of women's representation and diversity in the OSINT space and investigative journalism.

Ganguly has stated that OSINT investigations help confirm ground reality during war and fact-check claims made by state actors.

In 2023, following the Twitter takeover by Elon Musk and banning of ElonJet, Ganguly expressed concern for Twitter becoming "an inhospitable platform for the OSINT community". Ganguly also criticised the verification of the account of assassinated journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Musk for Twitter Blue, tweeting: "Jamal Khashoggi deserves better". She attributed the new verification rules on X to the disinformation put out by OSINT accounts, and "OSINT grifters".

Recognition and awards

Ganguly has won a number of awards for her work including the 2020 George Weidenfeld Special Preis for Courageous Reporting, In April 2021, Ganguly was included by '' Forbes'' magazine on their annual ''30 Under 30'' in the media category. She has won international awards including One Young World journalist of the year 2022, MHP 30 to watch under 30 in 2021 and 2020, WeAreTechWomen's TechWomen100 2021, Best Investigation at the Asian Media Awards 2021, Outstanding Young Journalist at the Asian Media Awards 2020, Women of the Future Award two Amnesty International Media Awards for Best Investigation in 2020 and 2023, and the European Press Prize Special Award in 2024.

Ganguly's journalism was shortlisted for the Association of International Broadcasting Young Journalist Award, One World Media Award for Coronavirus Reporting, Outstanding Young Journalist at the Asian Media Awards in 2020, and for the Broadcast Awards in 2021, for the Digital Investigative Journalism Award 2023, twice for the British Journalism Award 2024, and twice for the UK Press Awards 2024.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ganguly, Manisha
Indian investigative journalists
Indian reporters and correspondents
1995 births
Living people
Indian documentary filmmakers
British investigative journalists
British film producers
The Guardian journalists
British reporters and correspondents
BBC people
British documentary film producers