Insight Tarun J. Tejpal: The Story of My Assassins

Named one of India’s most influential people by The Guardian, Businessweek and Asiaweek, Tarun J. Tejpal is an acclaimed journalist, publisher, novelist and founder of Tehelka, a news organisation that has become renowned globally for its aggressive public interest journalism. He will be joining us in conversation with Shahzeb Jillani, South Asia Editor at BBC World Service News to talk about his work and the media landscape in India today.

Founded in 2000, Tehelka first came to prominence in India the following year when it exposed match-fixing in Indian professional cricket. But it was an investigation into corruption at India’s Ministry of Defence the same year that lead to the resignation of the defence minister that brought Tehelka global recognition. The backlash that followed lead to the temporary closure of Tehelka and death threats that inspired Tejpal‘s his new novel, The Story of My Assassins. In 2003, funded by subscribers Tehelka relaunched and became a weekly magazine in 2007.

Tejpal has been an editor with the India Today and the Indian Express groups, and the managing editor of the news magazine Outlook. As the founder of independent publishing house India Ink, he published Arundhati Roy’s Booker Award-winning novel, The God of Small Things.