PUCL Bulletin, May 2001

Citation
Twenty three year old Saswati Bora was educated in Assam, Delhi, and Mumbai. After graduating in Economics honours she did a diploma in Social Communications Media and that is where her interest in social issues started. As a student of Sophia Polytechnic, Mumbai she, as a member of a group, prepared a slide and sound presentation on Gutkha and oral cancer. She interviewed GR Khairnar to write an article for the class magazine. For her communication research projects, the topic that she chose was print media coverage of the Sri Krishna Commission report.
After s short stint in Mid Day, Mumbai she joined Blitz on Sunday from where she came to The Asian Age. At present she is the principal correspondent of The Asian Age in Mumbai.

She did an expose on a builder who has duped around 200 persons in Mumbai of three lakh rupees each in the name of setting up an elitist club. She revealed in a report how a film director was humiliated publicly as a result of political rivalry between two faction leaders of Shiv Sena. She went on to uncover the scandal of leaking the examination papers of MBBS. She also investigated how the police protected some people who had taken possession of the property of an old person.

Her story on atrocities committed in the Arthur Road Jail of Mumbai by the prison authorities was done in 7 parts last year. The jury of the 20th PUCL 'Journalism for Human Rights' Award was impressed by her tenacity for facts, her concern for the sufferings of the under trial prisoners, her strong will that refused to surrender to intimidation and threats, and the broad significance of the revelations.

-- K.G. Kannabiran, President, People's Union for Civil Liberties, March 23, 2001, Chennai

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