She previously worked as investigative documentary producer for BBC News[13] covering conflict and international affairs. She lives in London, United Kingdom.[14]
While living in Kolkata, India, Ganguly was recruited into journalism when she was in high school by the national newspaper The Times of India after winning a writing competition.[13][15]
After the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder, Ganguly began reporting on violence against women and was subject to rape and death threats online.[13] She was the founder and editor of feminist counterculture webzine, Eyezine, which consisted of mostly women reporting on violence against women.[16] The website was central to documenting the campus rape which sparked the 2014 Jadavpur University protests.[17] Its investigation into subsequent riot police assault against students sparked mass protests and shut down the city,[13] and resulted in more than 100,000 readers in one month for the website.[18] The webzine also came under attack from the state for reporting on human rights abuses in the Kashmir conflict.[13]
Ganguly received a full scholarship to study a Master's in journalism at the University of Westminster in London, and moved to the United Kingdom. She considers India to be a hostile environment for women in journalism.[13] Her first role in investigative journalism in the UK was for The Daily Telegraph.[19]
For the BBC, her investigative documentaries exposed double-tap attacks by Russian planes in Syria and war crimes by Turkish-backed forces in the Syrian civil war,[20][21] foreign meddling, violations of the UN arms embargo, desecration of the bodies of prisoners of war and civilians in Libya,[22][23] use of cluster munitions in Ukraine,[24] human trafficking in the Middle East,[14][25] uncovered the training of the killers of journalist Jamal Khashoggi,[14] discovered China's most famous MeToo activist who had been missing.[26] In 2022, Ganguly's investigation documented the torture of Russian anti-war prisoners in a Moscow police station and the identities of the officers,[27] which resulted in the officers being sanctioned by the EU.[28]
Ganguly was interviewed about her investigative reporting on Ukraine by Bellingcat,[29] El Mundo,[30] ARTE,[31] L'Orient Le Jour,[32] Marie Claire.[13]
Ganguly investigated Team Jorge, a team of Israeli contractors led by Tal Hanan, claiming to have meddled in more 30 elections worldwide and Aims, their software to launch bot armies[33][34][35] with the Guardian and Forbidden Stories. It resulted in the suspension of French broadcaster Rachid M'Barki of BFMTV.[36]
She investigated NTC-Vulkan, which develops a Russian disinformation network and cyberweapons used by the Russian military and intelligence agencies as a part of the Vulkan Files.[37] Ganguly acquired the Pentagon Leaks from Discord for the Guardian,[38] and reported that half the special forces deployments in Ukraine consisted of UK special forces.[39] Ganguly investigated the lineage of colonial looting of jewellery in the royal collection owned by Elizabeth II, and the British royal family.[40][41] Ganguly exposed the US and Germany training of Saudi border forces accused of mass killing migrants on the Yemen border.[42]
During the 2023 Israel-Hamas war, Ganguly's Instagram account was restricted by Meta while seeking blood donations for injured journalists.[45] Ganguly led the Guardian's investigation into the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion,[46] reporting that the crater at the blast site required kinetic energy inconsistent with a Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) aerial bomb, and was also inconsistent with an airstrike, concluding that it was "more likely to be a weapon that failed and released its payload over a wide area." She investigated damage to Gaza's hospitals including by Israeli munitions,[47][48] the Jabaliya refugee camp airstrikes,[49] conducted damage assessment of northern Gaza,[50] and wrote that Israel appeared to be receiving munitions from a US War Reserves Stock Allies-Israel for the war in Gaza.[51][52] Together with Forbidden Stories and ARIJ, Ganguly investigated the deaths of Palestinian journalists in Gaza and revealed that parts of the IDF viewed Hamas-linked journalists as legitimate targets.[53][54][55][56][57]
Ganguly worked with a consortium of investigative journalists to uncover more than 1,000 unmarked graves of deceased migrants and refugees on the borders of Europe.[58][59] The investigation was awarded the European Press Prize Special Award.[60][61][62][63]
She holds a PhD titled "Future of Investigative Journalism: The Age of Automation, A.I. & Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT)" from the University of Westminster.[64][65] It is the first PhD in OSINT mapping the impact on investigative journalism.[66][67][68] Ganguly's research also focussed on incidences of PTSD and the mental health impact of looking at graphic violence in OSINT investigations in war zones. She is a vocal proponent of women's representation and diversity in the OSINT space and investigative journalism.[69]
Ganguly has stated that OSINT investigations help confirm ground reality during war and fact-check claims made by state actors.[70][47]
In 2023, following the Twitter takeover by Elon Musk and banning of ElonJet, Ganguly expressed concern for Twitter becoming "an inhospitable platform for the OSINT community".[71] Ganguly also criticised the verification of the account of assassinated journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Musk for Twitter Blue, tweeting: "Jamal Khashoggi deserves better".[72][73] She attributed the new verification rules on X to the disinformation put out by OSINT accounts, and "OSINT grifters".[70]
Ganguly has won a number of awards for her work including the 2020 George Weidenfeld Special Preis for Courageous Reporting,[74][75] In April 2021, Ganguly was included by Forbes magazine on their annual 30 Under 30 in the media category.[76] She has won international awards including One Young World journalist of the year 2022,[77][78] MHP 30 to watch under 30 in 2021[79] and 2020,[80] WeAreTechWomen's TechWomen100 2021,[81] Best Investigation at the Asian Media Awards 2021,[82] Outstanding Young Journalist at the Asian Media Awards 2020,[83] Women of the Future Award [84] two Amnesty International Media Awards for Best Investigation in 2020 and 2023,[85][86][87] and the European Press Prize Special Award in 2024.[88]
Ganguly's journalism was shortlisted for the Association of International Broadcasting Young Journalist Award,[89] One World Media Award for Coronavirus Reporting,[90] Outstanding Young Journalist at the Asian Media Awards [91] in 2020, and for the Broadcast Awards in 2021,[92] for the Digital Investigative Journalism Award 2023,[93] twice for the British Journalism Award 2024,[94] and twice for the UK Press Awards 2024.[95]