Source: Asia New Zealand Foundation
WELLINGTON, 2 September 2026 – The Asia New Zealand Foundation’s Asia Media Centre has selected RNZ investigative reporter Anusha Bradley as this year’s Jefferson Fellow, one of the most prestigious international journalism fellowships available to Asia-Pacific reporters.
Bradley was chosen from a highly competitive field of applicants for a project the Asia Media Centre says closely matches this year’s fellowship focus: the societal and economic impact of artificial intelligence across the region.
The Jefferson Fellowship is a three-week reporting and study tour delivered by the East-West Centre in partnership with the Asia Media Centre, which covers all associated costs. This year’s programme, “New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence: Navigating AI’s Impacts on Societies and Economic Security in the Asia-Pacific Region,” runs from 25 October to 12 November 2026 and takes fellows to Honolulu, Tokyo and Seoul, with visits to hospitals, laboratories, AI-driven manufacturing plants, chipmakers and AI-enabled farms.
Asia Media Centre Manager Graeme Acton says the AMC is proud to be working with the Hawaii-based East West Centre on the Fellowship. “The Jefferson has always been an attractive and useful opportunity for Kiwi journalists looking to spread their wings and learn a bit more about the region”, he says. “Anusha Bradley is one of the best in the business in New Zealand right now”.
During the fellowship, Bradley will report on four interlinked threads: AI’s role in healthcare and agriculture; algorithmic decision-making and accountability in the public sector; indigenous data sovereignty, drawing on Aotearoa’s position as an international leader in Māori data sovereignty; and AI’s growing role in Asia-Pacific defence and security. She plans to bring the reporting home as a series of in-depth stories for RNZ, alongside a paper examining New Zealand’s “light-touch” approach to AI regulation.
“AI is changing the world,” Bradley said. “Helping the public understand these changes, clearly and honestly, feels like one of the more important things journalism can do right now.”
Bradley is an award-winning reporter with RNZ’s In Depth team, where she covers health, disability, social justice and the intersection of policy and politics. She was named Reporter of the Year at the 2025 Voyager Media Awards, won the Health Journalism Award in 2022, and was a finalist for Best Investigative Reporting at the 2025 New York Festivals Radio Awards.
The Asia Media Centre is part of the Asia New Zealand Foundation, and partners with the East-West Centre to deliver the Jefferson Fellowship each year, connecting New Zealand journalists with a global cohort of Asia-Pacific reporters and bringing sharper, better-informed coverage of the region back home.