Ten Asian journalists have been selected to take part in an intensive program on reporting elections, human rights and democracy under a media fellowship program hosted by the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL).

The ANFREL Asian Media Fellowship on Election Reporting, through the generous support of the Mission of Canada to ASEAN, provides a series of training sessions and mentoring, as well as financial and editorial support for the proposed election-related stories of the 10 media fellows.

The 10 media fellows are from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Timor Leste. They are as follows:

The mentor-editors who are guiding the fellows for this round of the media fellowship program are Mr. Ameen Izzadeen, deputy editor of Sunday Times in Sri Lanka and Mr. Hector Bryant Macale, news production head of ABS-CBN News Channel in the Philippines. Mr. John Reiner Antiquerra, ANFREL program officer for outreach and communication, is the overall program coordinator.

Launched in 2021, the ANFREL media fellowship program on election reporting seeks to uplift the role of journalists from independent news outlets and freelancers in empowering the electorate through crucial reporting of underrepresented voices and underreported issues during elections.