Rajneesh Bhandari is a global multimedia journalist, filmmaker, investigative reporter, and editor currently based in Kathmandu and South Asia.
His multimedia work on different issues have appeared in The New York Times, National Geographic, Aljazeera, AJ+, BBC Reel, Great Big Story, Contrast VR, NPR, Fusion, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, QuickTake by Bloomberg and other regional and national outlets.
In 2019, he worked as the investigations editor for the “Strengthening the Capacity of Nepali Journalists in Investigative Reporting” program and trained 60 reporters in Nepal on investigative multimedia reporting and edited their work. He has also worked as the data and multimedia editor for the Journalists for Transparency’s investigative reporting website J4T.org. He has also led a global multimedia team of the European Journalism Center supported news website ThinkBrigade.
Rajneesh worked at Nepal’s top Kantipur Television Network (KTV) for seven years before moving to independent journalism. His best-known investigative story that was aired on KTV showed how some of the lawmakers were misusing their diplomatic passports. That story won him an award at the KTV.
He studied investigative reporting, data journalism and documentary filmmaking at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, Arizona State University as a Fulbright Humphrey Fellow 2015-16. He graduated in Multimedia Journalism from Ateneo De Manila University and has earned a Master’s in Mass Communication and Journalism and Political Science from Tribhuvan University in Nepal.
He has conducted multimedia reporting training for South Asian journalists with International Center for Journalists and other local journalists on topics ranging from video journalism, multimedia journalism, mobile journalism to reporting with social media. He was awarded Online News Association’s MJ Bear Fellowship for his contribution towards digital journalism in Nepal.
Currently, he is the chief editor and CEO of Nepal Investigative Multimedia Journalism Network, a Nepal based non-profit that provides advanced investigative multimedia reporting training and mentorship for journalists to produce collaborative investigative stories.