Mr. Laxman Datt Pant
Chairperson, PhD Scholar
(Expertise: media ethics, safety of journalists, research, gender & media, media rights, documentation & writing, effective communications, project development)
The Recipient of the “International Communication Excellence Award-2020”, Mr. Laxman Datt Pant serves as the Chairperson of Media Action Nepal. With a role to advise & update the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC) on cases of attacks against media & journalists, & media freedom violations at the global level, in February, 2022, Mr. Pant was elected as one of the three Co-Chairs of the Media Freedom Coalition-Consultative Network (MFC-CN).
An Adjunct Professor of Media Ethics & Safety in Digital Age at the Tbilisi State University (under Erasmus+) in Georgia, he taught development journalism at the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh (2008-2009) & various courses of media studies at Kathmandu University in Nepal (2010-2018). In addition to delivering guest lectures in the reputed Universities across the world, Pant worked as the Coordinator for Future Communicators’ Project implemented by School of Journalism of the Yunnan University, China (2019-2021).
Pant started his career as a journalist more than two decades ago and worked with numerous media institutions in different capacities ranging from a reporter to an editor. Prior to founding Media Action Nepal, he served as Head of Communications at UNESCO, Communications Specialist at UNDP, Media Consultant for donor/multi-donor funded projects/programs of various Ministries , & has formulated numbers of media & communications strategies for national/international organizations. An internationally acclaimed media researcher, trainer, media rights advocate, & communications strategist, Mr. Pant worked as South Asia Journalist for DevelopmentAid, hosted/produced over 300 episodes of POWERchat (Nepal’s only TV talk show in English discussing development). An author of more than a dozen books, Pant has contributed numbers of research articles and book chapters to national and international journals & anthologies on different disciplines of media.
Co-editor of the UNESCO research publication Supporting Safety of Journalists in Nepal: An Assessment Based on UNESCO‘s Safety Indicators- A Media safety Landscape of Nepal (2016) , co-editor/lead researcher of the UNESCO/PMA study on Impact of COVID-19 on media freedom, journalist safety and media viability in Southeast Asia (2021), Pant also served as the Member of the Advisory Editorial Board/Author, IGI Global, USA: For books titled “Combating Threats to Media Freedom and Journalist Safety (2020)” & “Discrimination, Gender Equality and Safety Risks in Journalism (2021)” . A PhD Scholar in Media Ethics & Professionalism at the Infrastructure University, Malaysia, Pant holds extensive knowledge of the local, regional and international media environment.
