Tashi Dema, the assignment editor of Kuensel was elected the first woman president of the Journalists’ Association of Bhutan (JAB) today. She will serve as the President for the next three years.
40-year-old Tashi Dema was the lone candidate to contest for the post. Out of 34 members present for the voting through EVM, she secured all yes votes. Tashi, the mother of two completed her Masters in International Journalism from the University of Western Australia, Perth in 2016. By assuming the new post, she is anticipating to address access to information for journalists to pursue stories.
‘‘We need information and right now a lot of our government agencies, our constitutional bodies, are deciding not to give information and I keep saying when we ask for information it is not for journalists but the people. So, by being a president, I feel it’s my responsibility and the JAB secretariat’s responsibility. We will work with the JAB secretariat, the senior member, and everyone,” said Tashi.
‘‘What we want to work on specifically is to access information. I think especially over the last couple of months has been a dire situation for journalists where access to information has become difficult. So, this area where we both feel passionately about and you can be sure that we will do something in this area,” said Executive Director of JAB, Namgay Zam.
The Journalists’ Association of Bhutan is a non-political and non-profit organisation established in November 2014 to look after the welfare of journalists.
Karma Wangdi
Edited by Sonam Pem
