Navika Kumar appointed Times Network Group editor

Times Now anchor and managing editor Navika Kumar has been appointed Times Network Group Editor (Politics). Television Post reports that in her new role, Kumar will have additional charge of driving "political reporting strategy" for the network’s news brands ET Now, Mirror Now and Timesnownews.com.

The move is noteworthy considering that few women editors manage to break the glass ceiling in Indian journalism.

According to a 2019 Newslaundry and UN Women study, women occupy about 20 percent of newsroom leadership positions across 14 major Hindi and English TV networks.

When one looks at gender representation in English TV news debates, the picture is quite alarming:

• Women appear in 15.7 percent of all flagship debates and comprise just 22.4 percent of the panellists on average.

• Over 53 percent of the debates feature all-male panels, or manels.

• NDTV 24x7 has 29.5 percent women in the top decile of panellists by TV appearance while Rajya Sabha TV has none.

• Few female panellists are bureaucrats, defence experts, financial experts, or think tank representatives.

• Women make up 34.7 percent and 29.7 percent of the panels discussing, respectively, Public Life and Culture and Entertainment. They are absent from panels debating issues related to Science and Technology.

• Only 7.5 percent of all flagship debates are on gender issues and women comprise 55.6 percent of the panellists participating in them.