Meenal Thakur

Meenal Thakur is an international media development professional, programme manager and consultant with over a decade of experience in journalism and media development. At Transitions, a Prague-based media development organisation, she leads the solutions journalism and depolarisation portfolio, designing and managing international programmes focused on strengthening newsroom capacity and media resilience.

She has built an extensive network of newsrooms across Europe, fostering cross-border collaboration and bringing together journalists, newsroom leaders and subject-matter experts. Her expertise spans solutions journalism, reporting in polarised environments, climate journalism, audience engagement and newsroom sustainability. She has also trained and mentored journalists across Europe and the Global South in these approaches.

Meenal has particular expertise in Central and Eastern Europe, Ukraine and the South Caucasus, where she works closely with newsrooms navigating political, economic and organisational challenges. Previously, she worked at the European Journalism Centre and Free Press Unlimited. A former political journalist from India, she is based in the Netherlands.