Magazines and Newspapers Center, 5th Floor Main: Panel: SF Asian American Journalists Go Live

Panel: SF Asian American Journalists Go Live

Wed., May 8, 2024

6-7:30 p.m.

Koret Auditorium

Immerse yourself into the world of local journalism and see how reporters cover the Asian American news beat in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Four members of the Asian American Journalist Association (AAJA) who cover the Asian American and Pacific Islander news beat will discuss how authentic local reporting happens, important stories they’ve reported recently and how having reporters dedicated to the beat impacts the AAPI community. Moderated by the interim president of the AAJA-S.F. Bay Area Chapter, Harry Mok, the panel will feature Ko Lyn Cheang from the San Francisco Chronicle, Han Li from the San Francisco Standard and Ravi Kapur, CEO of Diya TV.

The Asian American Journalist Association is a 501(c)3 nonprofit educational and professional organization with more than 1,500 members across the United States and Asia. Since its founding in 1981, AAJA has been at the forefront of change in the journalism industry.

Harry Mok is an assistant editor in the opinion section of The San Francisco Chronicle. Previously, he was a copy editor at The Chronicle. Harry has also worked as an online producer for the Bay Area News Group, as an editor at Newsday in New York and is a former editor in chief of Hyphen magazine. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from San Jose State University and a master’s degree from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Ko Lyn Cheang joined the San Francisco Chronicle in 2024 to cover Asian American and Pacific Islander communities from the Indianapolis Star, where she had covered city government and housing since 2021. She got her start at The New Haven Independent covering criminal justice and the pandemic and has reported for the Jakarta Post and VICE News. Her work on the Indiana jail deaths crisis, evictions, substandard housing conditions and other reporting has been recognized by the IRE Awards, Goldsmith Prize, and the Connecticut and Indiana Societies for Professional Journalists. She graduated from Yale College as a Yale Journalism Initiative scholar with a philosophy major.

Han Li is a reporter for The Standard covering the city’s diverse Asian American communities. Born and raised in China, Han is fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin. He graduated from Sun Yat-sen University with a degree in journalism and holds a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Southern California. Previously, Han wrote for the World Journal, a national Chinese-language newspaper. He brings his bilingual reporting skills to The Standard. When not reporting, you can find Han checking out the Bay Area’s regional Chinese cuisine and immersing himself in Chinese American history and politics.

Ravi Kapur, who you probably recognize from his time at KGO-7, is an award-winning journalist and the founder and CEO of Diya TV, which provides programming geared toward South Asian Americans. Diya TV is now the largest South Asian broadcast television network in the nation, providing relevant news, information and entertainment to the diaspora’s next generation. It can be watched for free with an antenna on San Francisco channel 30.1.