Hannah Ellis Petersen Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Hannah Ellis Petersen

• Hannah Ellis Petersen is a British journalist known for her reporting on South Asia and international Affairs.

• In 2012, Hannah completed her graduation from the University of York, England.

• During her graduation days, she actively participated in student journalism, which helped her in enhancing her skills in reporting and news writing.

• In September 2012, Hannah Ellis Petersen joined the Daily Mail as a trainee reporter. She worked there until March 2013.

• In April 2014, Petersen joined The Guardian, as an Arts and Cultural Correspondent and covered a wide range of stories related to film, television, literature, and popular culture.

• In 2015, Hannah was awarded with the 2015 MHP Group award for her work at The Guardian.

• In January 2018, she was appointed as Southeast Asia Correspondent and relocated to Bangkok, Thailand.

• In Southeast Asia, Hannah reported majorly on political developments in countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, and the Philippines, where her reporting focused on democracy movements, elections, corruption, human rights issues, and social change.

• In 2018, she came into limelight for reporting on Malaysia’s historic general election, which ended the decades-long rule of the Barisan Nasional coalition and led to a major political change in the country.

• In September 2019, Hannah Ellis Petersen was appointed as South Asia Correspondent for the Guardian and moved to New Delhi, India.

• As South Asia Correspondent, Hannah began covering India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and regional geopolitical developments.

• Between 2019 and 2020, Petersen extensively covered major issues in India, including elections, Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), social movements, and religious tensions.

• During the COVID-19 pandemic, she came into news for reporting from the ground on India’s healthcare crisis, shortage of medical resources, and the impact of the pandemic on ordinary citizens.

• In an interview, Hannah Ellis Petersen revealed that while covering the pandemic in India in April 2021, she had contracted COVID-19 herself and had recovered after a difficult illness.

• In 2021, she appeared as a guest on CNN’s GPS Fareed Zakaria as South Asia Correspondent reporting on India.

• In the same year, she won the UN Laadli media Award for her Sundarbans coverage on human trafficking.

• In 2023, Hannah Ellis Petersen received Martin Adler Prize from the Rory Peck Trust.

• In 2024, one of her articles titled “I Trusted Him” about human trafficking rising in East India won The Statesman Award for Rural Reporting.

• In the same year, she won the CCNow Journalism Award for Climate Justice Reporting for her article on human trafficking in the sundarbans against the climate crises backdrop.

• By 2025, Hannah became one of the Guardian’s most prominent journalists for covering South Asia issues majorly on India-Pakistan relations and regional security issues.

• In June 2026, Hannah Ellis Petersen came into spotlight after she was seen at a protest in New Delhi organised by the Cockroach Janata Party. As a foreign journalist, her presence at the event sparked debate on social media, with some users questioning whether foreign nationals should participate in such gatherings and calling for action from the Delhi Police against her.
  

  Hannah Ellis Petersen at the Cockroach Janta Party protest in New Delhi

  https://twitter.com/BesuraTaansane/status/2063162270360985768