Masato Kajimoto, PhD, is the founding director of ANNIE. He is also an associate professor of practice at HKU Journalism at the University of Hong Kong. He specialises in news literacy education, mis/disinformation ecosystem research, fact-checking practice, and press freedom studies, with a strong focus on countries in the Asia-Pacific. He received a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia and holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Hong Kong. Before beginning a career in teaching and research, he worked as a reporter for CNN International.

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David Chak leads the media literacy and STEM education work in Arus Academy, a social enterprise he co-founded with 3 other of his friends. A graduate from McGill University, Canada, David obtained his post graduate diploma in education from Northern University, Malaysia.

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He joined the Teach for Malaysia programme and worked as a public school teacher in a high needs school for close to 7 years before leaving the service. In 2020, with a gracious grant, David and his team at Arus, alongside 15 teachers and 7 media industry mentors kickstarted the award-winning Media Education For All movement that has since trained close to 10,000 teachers in integrating media literacy education in classroom subjects.

Syed Nazakat is an award-winning Indian journalist, media entrepreneur, founder and CEO of DataLEADS, a digital media company he founded to promote the democratization of information at scale. He leads DataLEADS in New Delhi, as well as oversees its outreach across Asia. It is one of the world’s biggest fact-checking and media literacy training initiatives and is supported by Google News Initiative.

Syed also founded a unique collaboration platform between journalists, scientists and doctors called First Check to address rising health misinformation. He is a board member of The New Humanitarian (Geneva) and GIJN (USA) and has been twice a jury member for the Global Shining Light Award, a unique award which honours investigative journalism in a developing or transitioning country.  

Over the years, Syed has trained and mentored hundreds of journalists, media educators and students in more than 10 countries across Asia in specially designed data boot camps.  As a journalist, he has worked in senior positions at different media organisations,has over 18 years of experience as a journalist and has reported from more than 30 countries. Syed Nazakat’s work has earned him global recognition and awards. He holds a B.Sc degree from India and a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines.

As the newly appointed Associate Director, Anne brings her expertise in leading the strategic growth of international verification projects to RMIT FactLab. RMIT FactLab is a research hub dedicated to debunking misinformation online and developing critical awareness about its origins and spread. RMIT FactLab also works hand in hand with RMIT ABC Fact Check.

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Anne spent nearly four years with verification experts First Draft (closed and re-formed in 2022 as the Information Futures Lab, Brown University). Anne now also heads up RMIT FactLab's CrossCheck initiative which carries on in APAC the mission of First Draft's collaborative CrossCheck projects, and other research in partnership with the Information Futures Lab. Anne is a subcommittee board member for Australia's first misinformation and disinformation regulatory code enacted by the Australian Communications and Media Authority and was co-chief investigator on behalf of peak industry body DIGI during the code's development. Anne's industry experience includes successful anchoring and reporting roles at CNN International, Bloomberg TV, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Anne was an Assistant Professor of Practice and Head of Broadcast at the University of Hong Kong where she also helped to lead news literacy training and consulted for UNESCO.

Kanchan Kaur is Dean, Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media (IIJNM), Bangalore. She is also an India assessor for the International Fact-Checking Network which certifies fact-checking websites. She started her career in journalism by reporting the city of Bangalore for various small newspapers before moving on to the bigger ones like the Indian Express, Deccan Herald and The Gulf News. She has driven IIJNM’s emphasis on Multimedia and works on spreading news literacy.  

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Associate Professor Pijitra Suppasawatgul has over 20 years of experience in internet governance, digital literacy, data analytics in political science as well as data journalism. She is Head of Journalism Department and Lecturer in the Faculty of Mass Communications at Chulalongkorn University and Vice Dean for Social Engagement and Academic Service. A graduate of London School of Economic and Political Science (LSE) and Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California, her current research focuses on big data analytics and politics in social networks as well as social media governance.

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Pijitra has been honored by the National Research Council of Thailand for her research on hate speech and sits on Facebook’s Steering Committee in APAC. She is a founder of media and data incubators, Data Hatch and C-CUBE with the aim to build a greater ecosystem for the media and journalism industry. Pijitra also spearheaded the 333 Open Data Campaign to force the Thai Government to be transparent about COVID-19 vaccines.

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