Kinley Dorji


Dasho Kinley Dorji was Bhutan's first rained journalist who became founder, then Managing Director and Editor in Chief of Kuensel, Bhutan's national newspaper. In 2009 he became Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Communications.
Dorji was sent to Australia by the Fourth King to study journalism in the 1980s, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Mitchell College, now Charles Sturt University, situated in country Bathurst. He also completed a Master of Journalism at Columbia University in New York, and, in 2007, was awarded a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University for his development of media in emerging democracies. In 2019 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from University of Sydney for his contribution to global journalism.
He published Bhutan’s first book on Literary Journalism, titled Within the Realm of Happiness, which includes 13 personal essays on Bhutanese culture.
He has been a strong proponent of Gross National Happiness as an alternative for Human Development.
He currently lives in Thimphu with his three children and wife.
On 9 December 2006, Kinley was awarded the prestigious Royal Red Scarf by the Fourth King, the Bhutanese equivalent of a knighthood, which confers on him the title Dasho.

External Links

From Bathurst to Bhutan and beyond: meet Andrew Denton and Kinley Dorji: https://www.sydney.edu.au/engage/events-sponsorships/sydney-ideas/2019/dasho-kinley-dorji-and-andrew-denton.html