Shakuntala Banerjee (born 1973) is a German television journalist and reporter.

Life

Banerjee was born in 1973 in

Rheydt Rheydt () is a borough of the German city Mönchengladbach, located in the west of North Rhine-Westphalia. Until 1918 and then again from 1933 (due to a split from Mönchengladbach arranged by Joseph Goebbels, who was born there) through 1975 it ...

Mönchengladbach Mönchengladbach (, ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany, west of the Rhine, halfway between Düsseldorf and the Netherlands, Dutch border. Geography Municipal subdivisions Since 2009, th ...

North Rhine-Westfalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

, West Germany to a German mother and an Indian father. She grew up in Rheydt and graduated from the . Banerjee studied philosophy, German, and Indology in

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

, later political science and public law. During her studies she gained her first journalistic experience as a student assistant in the capital studios of

Westdeutscher Rundfunk (; "West German Broadcasting Cologne"), shortened to WDR (), is a German public broadcasting, public-broadcasting institution based in the States of Germany, Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a const ...

(WDR) and

RTL RTL may refer to: Media * RTL Group, a European TV, radio, and production company *** List of RTL Group's television stations (including part-owned channels) *** List of RTL Group's radio stations ** RTL Lëtzebuerg, usually referred to simply a ...

. After completing her studies, Banerjee helped set up the in Munich and supervised the publication of the lexicon of economic works at the University of Erfurt at the chair of . In 2003 Banerjee started working as a freelancer for

Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen ZDF (), short for (; ), is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Launched on 1 April 1963, it is run as an independent nonprofit institution, and was founded by all federal states of Germany (). ...

(ZDF), from 2005 she worked as a reporter for the Mainz ZDF editorial team for the magazine '' Drehscheibe Deutschland'' and reported for '' blickpunkt''. From 2008 to 2011, Banerjee worked as a speaker for the ZDF editors-in-chief Nikolaus Brender and Peter Frey. From the end of 2011, Banerjee reported as a reporter from the ZDF Landesstudio Hessen, from 2015 she was a correspondent in Brussels. Since March 2019, she has been the deputy head of the capital studio based in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and alternates with

Theo Koll Theo Koll (born 19 March 1958) is a German journalist and television presenter. Early life and education Koll was born on 19 March 1958 in Bensberg, Bergisch Gladbach, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. From 1977 to 1985, he studied political s ...

to present the program '.

Awards

In 2015, Banerjee received the Heinrich Mörtl Foundation's media prize for the promotion of training and further education for police officers in the state of Hesse for the report ''Drogenmetropole Frankfurt – Der lange Weg gegen die Sucht'' (''drug metropolis Frankfurt – The long way against the addiction'').

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Banerjee, Shakuntala 1973 births Living people 21st-century German journalists German women television journalists German people of Indian descent ZDF people