RNZ Investigative Reporter Anusha Bradley Named 2026 Jefferson Fellow

Bradley was chosen from a highly competitive field of applicants for a project looking at the societal and economic impacts of artificial intelligence across the region.

About the Fellowship

The Jefferson Fellowship is a three-week reporting and study tour delivered by the East-West Centre at the University of Hawaii, in partnership with the Asia New Zealand Foundation's Asia Media Centre, which covers all costs associated with the selected Fellow. Open only to full-time journalists, the Fellowship is designed to deepen public understanding of the cultures, issues and trends shaping the Indo-Pacific.

This year's theme, "New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence: Navigating AI's Impacts on Societies and Economic Security in the Asia-Pacific Region," will run from 25 October to 12 November 2026, taking Fellows to Honolulu, Tokyo and Seoul.

Along the way, participants will meet experts, researchers, and leaders from government, business and civil society, and see AI's effects first-hand through visits to hospitals, laboratories, schools, AI-driven manufacturing plants, chipmakers and AI-enabled farms.

The programme comes as AI's economic footprint in the region grows rapidly - the United Nations estimates the technology could add close to US$1 trillion in economic gains across Asia over the next decade, lifting annual GDP growth by around 2%. Countries with large services and professional sectors, such as Singapore, South Korea and Japan, are expected to benefit most. But the Fellowship will also examine the technology's risks: the danger of widening gaps between advanced and developing economies, job displacement from automation, and unresolved questions around data privacy, surveillance, and impacts on indigenous communities.

RNZ Investigative Reporter, Anusha Bradley. Photo: IG account

The Fellow: Anusha Bradley

Anusha Bradley is an award-winning investigative reporter with RNZ's In Depth team, where her reporting examines how government policy, public institutions and regulatory systems affect everyday lives, with a particular focus on health, disability, social justice and the intersection of policy and politics.

Her investigative work has driven real-world change. Her reporting on ACC's handling of birth injury claims and its mishandling of sensitive client data prompted policy reforms and greater scrutiny of the agency. She has also investigated the influence of multinational dairy companies on New Zealand's baby formula advertising regulations, and exposed systemic under-resourcing and inadequate care within the country's mental health services.

Her work has been widely recognised:

• Reporter of the Year, 2025 Voyager Media Awards

• Health Journalism Award, 2022 Voyager Media Awards, for her coverage of ACC's systemic issues

• Finalist, Best Investigative Reporting, New York Festivals Radio Awards 2025

Her Pitched Project: Why It Matters

In her application, Bradley set out a project built around a question that runs through much of her journalism: what happens when the systems meant to protect people fail, and what happens when those systems are increasingly run by algorithms nobody fully understands?

Her reporting will explore four interlinked threads during the Fellowship:

• AI in healthcare and agriculture - how Japan, South Korea and the United States are adopting AI to address ageing populations and workforce shortages, challenges New Zealand is grappling with as well, and how regulators are keeping pace.

• Algorithmic decision-making in the public sector - the use of AI in fraud detection, risk assessment and resource allocation, and the accountability gaps this creates.

• Indigenous data sovereignty - drawing on Aotearoa's position as an international leader in Māori data sovereignty to explore parallel debates emerging across the region.

• AI in defence and security - understanding the technology's growing role in conflict and security across the Asia-Pacific at a time of heightened geopolitical tension.

Bradley plans to bring this reporting home as a series of In Depth articles for RNZ's radio and digital audiences, and to present a paper on the New Zealand government's current approach to AI adoption, including the opportunities, the risks, and the implications for data sovereignty, particularly for Māori. With New Zealand's 2025 national AI strategy signalling further expansion under a deliberately "light-touch" regulatory approach, questions of transparency, governance and accountability are only beginning to surface - making Bradley's project especially timely.

"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."

The Asia Media Centre is a specialist unit of the Asia New Zealand Foundation, dedicated to helping New Zealand media cover Asia with greater depth and context. It 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.

Asia Media Centre Manager Graeme Acton says the Jefferson Fellowship is a long-standing part of the NZ media landscape. “ Its always been an award that’s attractive to those wanting to spread their wings and get out into the region, to take their reporting to another level” he says. “Anusha is among the best in the business in New Zealand, and I hope she makes the most of the opportunity”.

By sending journalists like Bradley to report first-hand from Honolulu, Tokyo and Seoul, the Asia New Zealand Foundation and its Asia Media Centre continues its broader mission of connecting New Zealand media with a global cohort of Asia-Pacific reporters and bringing sharper, better-informed coverage of the region back home.

-Asia Media Centre