SPEAKERS
DAY 1
Maria Ordzhonikidze
Director, Justice for Journalists Foundation
Maria Ordzhonikidze is a Director of the Justice for Journalists Foundation. Over the course of her international career, Ms Ordzhonikidze has designed and managed a number of public awareness, advocacy, human rights and crisis management campaigns. As a Secretary General of the EU-Russia Centre she oversaw its research and lobbying efforts in Brussels and wider Europe. She ran the international litigation communication and advocacy campaign as the Head of Khodorkovsky Press Center in Russia. A visiting professor in International Communications at Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, she conducted training programmes for corporations, NGOs and individuals. Ms Ordzhonikidze has authored research and articles and regularly speaks on subjects including sociological and political trends, international relations, freedom of speech and global security. She holds an MA in Sociology from the Moscow State University and an MA in Intelligence and Security from the London Brunel University.
Mel Bunce
Professor of International Journalism and Politics, at City St Georges, University of London
Mel Bunce is Professor of International Journalism and Politics at City St George’s, University of London. Her research examines international news, media freedom, and the relationship between journalism and democracy. She is currently the Deputy Dean of the School of Communication & Creativity at City St George’s, University of London, and she was previously the Head of City’s renowned Department of Journalism. Mel holds a Doctorate in Politics from the University of Oxford, and is a Senior Fellow of the UK’s Higher Education Association.
Baroness Helena Kennedy KC
Director, International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute. Member of the UK House of Lords and Barrister with over 50 years experience. Chair of The High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom
Helena Kennedy KC is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers and Director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute. She is widely regarded as one of the leading criminal and public law practitioners in the U.K., representing defendants in many landmark cases in the English courts. Lady Kennedy sits on the House of Lords’ EU Committee and chairs the EU Justice Sub-Committee. She formerly sat on the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, and formerly chaired the British Council and JUSTICE, a leading all-party human rights and law reform organisation in the U.K.
Amy Brouillette
Director of Advocacy at the International Press Institute, and Co-Chair of the Media Freedom Coalition Civil Society Consultative Network
Amy Brouillette is the Director of Advocacy at the International Press Institute, an organization that works with a global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists to defend press freedom and independent journalism around the world. As a resident fellow at CMDS since 2011, Amy has more than a decade of experience developing and leading research, advocacy, monitoring, and capacity-building projects focused on supporting and enabling independent journalism. From 2013 to 2016, she served as director the European Media Project at CMDS, a project that focused on providing tools and training for journalists and human rights defenders in Central and Southeastern Europe. Prior to joining IPI, Amy served as director of research for Ranking Digital Rights, a project that holds tech companies accountable for policies and practices affecting freedom of expression, information, and privacy. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a master’s degree in history from Central European University in Budapest.
Professor Kingsley Abbott
Director, Institute of Commonwealth Studies
Professor Kingsley Abbott is an experienced international criminal and human rights lawyer with more than 20 years experience in international non-governmental organisations, the United Nations, academic institutions and domestic legal practice. He is currently Professor of Practice and Director of the Institute for Commonwealth Studies at the University of London. Prior to that, he spent over nine years in Thailand where he served the International Commission of Jurists as the Director of Global Accountability and International Justice. During this time, he developed and led numerous human rights and rule of law initiatives in Asia and around the world. He has also worked as a Senior Legal Adviser at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia and as Trial Counsel in the Office of the Prosecutor at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the Hague. He started his career in his home country of Aotearoa New Zealand, where he mainly practised as a criminal barrister under a leading King’s Counsel.
Professor Can Yeğinsu
Barrister and Deputy Chair of The High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom
Can Yeginsu is a barrister practising from 3 Verulam Buildings where he has been consistently recognised as one of the U.K.’s leading lawyers practising in civil liberties and human rights, administrative and public law, and international law. Mr. Yeginsu has appeared in numerous cases as counsel representing journalists, as well as free speech and media organisations, before a range of courts and tribunals, including the English Court of Appeal, the U.K. Supreme Court, the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the ECOWAS Court of Justice. He is also Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia Law School (New York), where he co-teaches a seminar on freedom of expression and is Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown Law (Washington D.C.) and Koç University Law School (Istanbul), where he teaches international law.
Jan Braathu
OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media
Courtney C. Radsch
Director, Center for Journalism and Liberty
Dr. Courtney C. Radsch, PhD, is Director of the Center for Journalism and Liberty at the Open Markets Institute where she produces and oversees cutting-edge research into the political economy of AI, news media market structures and information power and helps design smart policy solutions that protect democracy and human liberty. As a global thought leader, she regularly publishes and provides commentary and analysis in top media outlets; keynotes and moderates events around the world; and advises publishers and media leaders. She has testified before congressional, parliamentary, and competition authorities in several countries and advised international organizations including the UN, EU, OECD, OSCE, and WEF. Radsch is a strategic advisor to leading human rights and media organizations, serves on the board of Tech Policy Press, and was recognized in 2025 as 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics.
Sayra Tekin
Director of Legal, Policy and Regulatory Affairs, News Media Association
Sayra is director of legal, policy and regulatory affairs for the News Media Association. With a wealth of experience in media law and litigation, she is responsible for the NMA committee, chaired by Lord Black, comprising publisher and editorial representatives and legal and policy experts. Formerly at the BBC, she is an experienced solicitor-advocate with a strong track record for advising journalists and editors and successfully lobbying courts and regulators on issues which threaten press freedom. She has advised on sensitive parliamentary select committee investigations and high-profile public inquiries. Prior to the BBC, Sayra was a dispute resolution specialist at Slaughter and May where she also trained. Sayra is currently co-authoring the practitioner’s textbook, Media Law and Regulation, for Bloomsbury due to be published in 2025.
Charlie Beckett
Professor of Practice, Director of Polis and the Polis/LSE JournalismAI project, London School of Economics
Charlie Beckett is a professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the LSE. He is the founding director of Polis, the London School of Economics’ international journalism think-tank. Professor Beckett is currently leading the Polis Journalism and AI project. https://www.journalismai.info/ He was director of the LSE’s Truth, Trust and Technology Commission that reported on the misinformation crisis in 2018. Before joining the LSE in 2006 he was an award-winning journalist for over 20 years at LWT, BBC and ITN.
Susan Coughtrie
Director, Foreign Policy Centre
Susan Coughtrie is Director at the Foreign Policy Centre. Susan joined FPC in 2020 to lead the Unsafe for Scrutiny project, which examines risks and threats to journalists investigating financial crime and corruption. The findings of this research led Susan to co-found the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition in January 2021, which she continues to co-chair. Susan has undertaken a variety of consultancy work in the media sphere, having previously worked at the international free expression organisation ARTICLE 19 from 2012-2018, and as an advisor to the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) from 2019-2022. Susan is also a Trustee for committee for the Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland (CFoIS).
Fiona O’Brien
UK Director, Reporters without Borders
Fiona O’Brien is the UK Director of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which defends press freedom and the right of every human being to access reliable information. A former foreign correspondent, she has also worked for the United Nations and ran the MA Journalism at Kingston University. She sits on the UK’s National Committee for the Safety of Journalists.
Kris Cheng
Exiled journalist from Hong Kong
Kris Cheng is an award-winning journalist covering politics and diplomacy, hailing from Hong Kong, and is currently a London-based freelance reporter for Voice of America. His work has been featured in the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Public Radio International, ITV, Die Zeit, and Hong Kong Economic Times. As the former Editorial Director at Hong Kong Free Press, Kris was awarded an Honorable Mention in Excellence for Explanatory Reporting at the 2020 Society of Publishers in Asia Awards (SOPA).
Vafa Fati-zade
Advisor, Justice for Journalists Foundation
Vafa Fati-zadeis an international Project Manager and Lawyer. She has extensive experience in administering and managing large grant portfolios with the major US and European donor organisations. She has vast academic and practical knowledge of monitoring and reporting on human rights violations, democratic development, conducting trial monitoring, profiling political prisoners and carrying out election monitoring. In the course of her career Vafa worked with Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), holding various posts in the Missions in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Office in Baku; the headquarters of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) in Rome, Italy; Brussels-based International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR), and consulted Media Law Defence Initiative (MLDI) and International Bar Association Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) in London. She joined the Justice for Journalists Foundation in 2020 to design and launch Orkhan Dzhemal Media Safety Academy and help manage JFJ’s journalistic grant programme. Vafa Fati-zade has an LLM degree in International Human Rights from the University of Essex in the United Kingdom and an MA degree in Social and Public Policy with Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies minor from Duquesne University in the US.
Andrei Soldatov
Investigative journalist, author and Russian security services expert
Andrei Soldatov is a Russian investigative journalist in exile, co-founder and editor of Agentura.ru, a watchdog of the Russian secret services’ activities. He has been covering security services and terrorism issues since 1999.
Soldatov currently lives in exile in London (he has been listed on Russia’s most wanted list since 2022).
He is co-author with Irina Borogan of The New Nobility (PublicAffairs, 2010), The Red Web (PublicAffairs, 2015), The Compatriots (PublicAffairs, 2019), and the upcoming book Our Dear Friends in Moscow: The Inside Story of a Broken Generation (due in June 2025).
Nika Gvaramia
Co-Founder, Ahali & Coalition for Change
Nika Gvaramia is a founder of a Georgian media outlet Mtavari Arkhi, the country’s primary opposition television network and a political leader since co-founding in 2024 a political party Ahali and the Coalition for Change alongside other opposition leader.
Since 2012, Gvaramia has held leadership roles in two of Georgia’s most influential opposition networks, Rustavi 2 and Mtavari Arkhi. His outspoken criticism of the government led to a politically motivated imprisonment in May 2022, widely condemned by the European Parliament, U.S. State Department, and Amnesty International. Following intense domestic and international pressure, he was pardoned by President Salome Zourabichvili in June 2023.
Gladis Temirchieva
Advisor, Justice for Journalists Foundation
Gladis Temirchieva, an editor in chief of the Kyrgyz Information and analytical resource Vesti.kg. A journalist with over two decades of experience, she is now chairing the Investigative Journalism Foundation, a member of the Global Investigative Journalism Network. She is also the chairwoman of the Media Action Platform of Kyrgyzstan, an active defender of freedom of speech and expression. Gladis is of the “Justice” award of the Ombudsman of the Kyrgyz Republic for special contribution to the protection of human rights, and the honorary diploma of the parliament of Kyrgyz Republic in recognition of significant contribution to the development of parliamentarism and coverage of the work of Parliament.
Nicholas W. Miller
Senior Legal Advisor & Coordinator for Multilateral Engagement, International Center for Not-for-Profit Law.
Nicholas Miller is a Senior Legal Advisor and Coordinator for Multilateral Engagement at the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL). He leads ICNL’s engagement with a variety of international institutions, including the United Nations General Assembly and Human Rights Council, and the Financial Action Task Force, where he works with governments and civil society to promote the freedoms of association, expression, and assembly. Prior to joining ICNL, Nicholas served in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL).
Olga Rudenko
Editor in Chief of The Kyiv Independent
Olga Rudenko is the chief editor of the Kyiv Independent, an award-winning media start-up launched in November 2021 by the former editorial team of the Kyiv Post. Olga is the former deputy chief editor of the Kyiv Post. She has written for global publications, and was a fellow at the Chicago Booth School of Business in 2021. She was featured on the cover of Time magazine in May 2022 as one of the publication’s Next Generation Leaders, and won the Women of Europe award in the “Woman in Action” category in December 2022. Olga Rudenko is the author of the Ukraine Weekly newsletter, which focuses on key events that have shaped the week.
Deniz Wagner
Adviser, Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media
Deniz Wagner is adviser to the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, leading the office’s work on media freedom, democracy and security. Deniz led the OSCE’s first project on Artificial Intelligence and Freedom of Expression, was rapporteur to the OSCE Advisory Group of Eminent Experts on Freedom of the Media, and co-author of the report ‘Can there be Security without Media Freedom?’. She has steered projects establishing independent oversight bodies for the media industry, supported legal reform to enhance media pluralism in Europe, and developed human rights-based guidance to addressing disinformation in the digital age. Previously, Deniz worked in strategic communications and was a Senior Adviser for Human Rights at the Austrian Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs.
Damian Tambini
Distinguished Policy Fellow in the Department of Media and Communications, LSE
Damian Tambini is author of the widely acclaimed book ‘Media Freedom’ (2021), which predicted the current clash between US and European approaches to media freedom and the regulation of big tech. He is an expert in media and communications regulation and policy and has advised parliaments, governments, and regulators around the world on the challenges of regulating media and social media. As well as writing dozens of peer reviewed articles on media law and policy, he co-authored the books ‘Digital Dominance’, ‘Regulating Big Tech, and ‘Cyberdemocracy’.
Mira Milosevic
Executive Director of the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD)
Ali- Abbas Ali
Director of Broadcasting Competition, OFCOM
Ali-Abbas Ali leads Ofcom’s work on Media Plurality and Competition. Over the last ten years he has worked across Ofcom’s competition portfolio, including Post, Telecoms as well as the Media sector. Prior to joining Ofcom he held senior finance posts at BT Group. His career also spans the motor industry, consulting and private equity.
Staffan Lindberg
Director of the V-Dem Institute at University of Gothenburg
DAY 2
Sir John Whittingdale MP
Chair of the APPG on Media Freedom
Sir John Whittingdale was Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport between 2015-16, and also took on a role as Minister of State in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport several times in the years that followed, most recently in 2023. He has been the Conservative Member of Parliament for Maldon since 1992 and is a long-time chair for the APPG on Media Freedom. From 2005-15, he chaired the Culture, Media and Sport Committee. His time in government was marked by significant events, including his involvement in high-profile inquiries into press ethics and the phone hacking scandal.
Jessica Ní Mhainín
Head of Policy and Campaigns, Index of Censorship
Jessica Ní Mhainín is Head of Policy and Campaigns at Index on Censorship. She joined Index in April 2019 and since 2020 has led Index’s project work, which seeks to protect and defend journalists, human rights defenders, artists, and academics around the world. She is co-founder of the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition and has been actively involved in anti-SLAPP campaigns across Europe. She has experience in international human rights advocacy through her work at Front Line Defenders and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). She holds a Master’s degree in EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies from the College of Europe.
William Horsley
Co-founder and director, International Director, Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM)
William Horsley is the International Media Freedom Representative and UK Chairman of the Association of European Journalists (AEJ); former BBC foreign correspondent and TV & Radio programme presenter; international director of the Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM) at the University of Sheffield since 2009; author of the OSCE Safety of Journalists Guidebooks and consultant to UNESCO and the Council of Europe; member of RSF London Bureau’s Advisory Board. William’s long-standing activities for the AEJ with the Council of Europe were instrumental in the establishment in 2015 of the Platform for the Safety of Journalists which is marking its 10th anniversary this year.
Aurélia Dondo
Head of Europe and Central Asia Region, PEN International
Aurélia Dondo is Head of Europe and Central Asia at PEN international, the world’s largest association of writers. She is responsible for developing and implemented strategies to combat freedom of expression violations in Europe and Central Asia through research, campaigning, and advocacy to support writers at risk.
Carole Cadwalladr
Investigative journalist
Carole Cadwalladr is a journalist for the Guardian and Observer in the United Kingdom. She worked for a year with whistleblower Christopher Wylie to publish her investigation into Cambridge Analytica, which she shared with the New York Times. The investigation resulted in Mark Zuckerberg being called before Congress and Facebook losing more than $100 billion from its share price. She has also uncovered multiple crimes committed during the European referendum and evidence of Russian interference in Brexit.
Jonathan Heawood
Executive Director, Public Interest News Foundation
Jonathan Heawood is Executive Director of the Public Interest News Foundation (PINF), the UK’s first charity to promote public interest journalism. He began his career as a journalist at the Observer and has also served as editor of the Fabian Review, director of English PEN and director of programmes at the Sigrid Rausing Trust. Following the Leveson Inquiry in 2011-12, Jonathan founded IMPRESS, the UK’s first independent press regulator, which he led as CEO until 2020, when he launched the Public Interest News Foundation. He has written for newspapers and magazines including the Telegraph, Guardian and New Statesman, and journals including Critical Quarterly, the Journal of Media Law and the British Journalism Review.
Jonathan has a PhD from the University of Cambridge and has held visiting fellowships at King’s College, London, the University of East Anglia and the University of Stirling. He is a leadership fellow at St George’s House, Windsor, chair of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and co-chair of the Stephen Spender Trust. His first book, The Press Freedom Myth, was published in 2019.
Khadija Patel
Journalist-in-Residence, International Fund for Public Interest Media
Khadija Patel is the Head of Programmes of The International Fund for Public Interest Media and is the former editor-in-chief of the Mail & Guardian in South Africa. She is also a co-founder of The Daily Vox and chairperson of the International Press Institute (IPI). As a journalist she has produced work for Sky News, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Quartz, City Press and the Daily Maverick, among others. She is also a research associate at WISER (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Witwatersrand). She is passionate about the enhancement and protection of global media as a public good.
Jenna Corderoy
Investigative journalist at Democracy for Sale and visiting lecturer at City University, Democracy for Sale
Jenna Corderoy is a reporter for Democracy for Sale, a newsletter dedicated to revealing how dark money and hidden influence threaten our democracy. She specialises in obtaining documents under the Freedom of Information Act, and has brought several successful FOIA challenges at tribunal.
Her work on access to information has been widely recognised. In 2022, she won Campaign of the Year at the British Journalism Awards along with her openDemocracy colleagues for investigations on transparency in British public life. openDemocracy’s campaign was also nominated at the Press Awards that year. In 2021, she was shortlisted for Private Eye’s Paul Foot Award for an investigation into the government’s ‘Clearing House’ and the state of freedom of information. In 2019, she was longlisted for the Paul Foot Award and shortlisted for the investigations category for the British Journalism Awards.
Martin Scott
Professor in Media & Development, School of Global Development, University of East Anglia
Martin Scott is a Professor of Media and Global Development, at the University of East Anglia. He studies media freedom; international journalism; media influence on aid; humanitarian news; media capture, and news audiences. His publications include Capturing News, Capturing Democracy (2024), Humanitarian Journalists (2022), Media and Development (2014) and From Entertainment to Citizenship (2014).
Meera Selva
Chief Executive, Internews Europe
Meera Selva is chief executive of Internews Europe a not-for-profit organisation which supports independent media in over 100 countries
Meera was previously the Deputy Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and is a co-founder of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network.
She is an experienced journalist who has reported from the field across Europe, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa, including several years at the Associated Press.
She is also a senior research associate of the Reuters Institute and an associate fellow of Green Templeton College at the University of Oxford, as well as a member of the Center for Economic Policy Research. Her research focuses on issues of press freedom, diversity in newsrooms, and media sustainability.
Nadia Mandl
Associate Project Officer, Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists, UNESCO
Nadia Anna Mandl is an Associate Project Officer at UNESCO’s Section for Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists. She focuses on the work of the Global Media Defence Fund, which supports not-for-profit organizations working to bolster journalists’ legal protection. Prior to working at UNESCO, she conducted advocacy on Afghanistan at the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in Paris and was a Policy Officer at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London, working on media freedom. She holds an MSc in International Public Policy from University College London and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from City University.
Charlene Miwa Nagae
Founder and Executive Director, Tornavoz
Charlene Nagae is a lawyer with extensive experience in defending freedom of expression cases in Brazil, graduated from the University of São Paulo Law School (2006) and postgraduate in Intellectual Property and New Business from Fundação Getúlio Vargas – SP (2020). Co-founder and executive director of Instituto Tornavoz, a civil society organization dedicated to the defense of freedom of expression in Brazil.
Veysel Ok
Co Director/ Attorney-at-law, Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA)
Carlos Gaio
Executive Director, Media Defence
Carlos is the CEO of Media Defence. Prior to joining the organisation, Carlos worked for 10 years as senior lawyer at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. He also worked for human rights foundations and NGOs in the UK and in Brazil, specialising in human rights law and international litigation. He also has experience in government and intergovernmental advocacy.
Renaud Gaudin De Villaine
UN Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights
Renaud has been working for more than ten years with OHCHR where he held various positions, including desk officer on African countries, field coordinator in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and legal advisor to the commissions of inquiry on Eritrea and Burundi. He is currently serving as advisor on media freedom and the safety of journalists. Before joining OHCHR, Renaud worked for non-governmental organizations both in European Union liaison offices in Brussels and in Liberia. He holds a master’s degree on human rights and humanitarian law at the University Paris II Panthéon-Assas.
Charlie Holt
CASE Steering Group and UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition co-chair
Charlie Holt is the European Head of Global Climate Legal Defence (CliDef), an organisation set up to support climate activists facing SLAPPs and other legal threats. He also advises on legal strategy for Greenpeace International, where he leads the organisation’s SLAPP resilience strategy and sits on the European Commission’s Expert Group on SLAPPs. He sits on the Steering Committee of the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE) and co-chairs the UK Working Group on SLAPPs. Since 2016, Charlie has advised on the response of Greenpeace International to two aggressive large-scale SLAPPs targeting Greenpeace entities in the USA, and in 2018 helped to set up the US anti-SLAPP coalition Protect the Protest.
Jonathan Bock
Executive Director, Flip, Colombia
Jonathan Bock is the Executive Director of the Foundation for Press Freedom – FLIP. Jonathan is a journalist with a master’s degree in International Relations and Journalism from the University Complutense of Madrid. He has directed and led research teams and publications on freedom of expression and prominent local and collaborative journalism initiatives in Colombia and Latin America.
Samantha Thompson
Senior Associate, RPC
Samantha is a senior associate in RPC’s market-leading media defence team. She specialises in protecting freedom of speech, whether that’s enabling journalists to scrutinise the powerful, defending content litigation, or holding governments to account over Article 10 ECHR violations. She represents media organisations, freelance journalists, whistleblowers, victims of sexual assault and NGOs.
Samantha co-leads RPC’s Anti-SLAPP team which assists victims of SLAPPs and other abusive claims. She is frequently quoted in the press on SLAPPs and has provided evidence on the issue to the Ministry of Justice.
She has acted on some of the most high-profile libel and privacy actions in recent years including ZXC v Bloomberg, and was previously seconded to Channel 4, where she advised the broadcaster on its undercover investigations, award-winning documentaries and other programming.
Samantha has been recognised as a Key Lawyer by Legal 500 since 2021.
Dario Milo
Partner at Webber Wentzel and Member of The High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom
Professor Milo is a partner at Webber Wentzel attorneys in Johannesburg, South Africa. Since 2019, he has been a member of the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom, an independent body that was convened in July 2019 at the request of the UK and Canada to provide advice and recommendations to governments to prevent and reverse abuses of media freedom. He has acted as lead attorney in a number of free speech and media freedom cases in courts and tribunals in South Africa, including on issues such as civil and criminal defamation, open justice, access to information, prior restraints, disinformation, hate speech, surveillance, intimidation of journalists, national security and privacy. He acted for the world-famous cartoonist Zapiro in the defamation claim brought by former president Jacob Zuma. Professor Milo is Adjunct Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and the author of Defamation and Freedom of Speech published by Oxford University Press. He is an expert at Columbia University’s Global Freedom of Expression initiative and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Media Law.
Artemiza-Tatiana Chisca
Head of the Freedom of Expression and CDMSI Division, Council of Europe
During her career of more than 25 years at the Council of Europe, Ms Chisca has worked in the framework of conventional and non-conventional monitoring mechanisms, notably on issues of local democracy and the protection of national minorities and also, for eight years, for the Council of Europe’s European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission), on the promotion of democracy and fundamental freedoms.
Ms. Chisca is a graduate in law as well as in French language and literature and studied, among other places, at the Institute of Political Studies in Strasbourg and at the College of Europe in Bruges (master’s degree in Community law). Before joining the Council of Europe, she worked at the Constitutional Court of Romania and at the University of Bucharest, Romania.
Peter ter Velde
Project Manager, Persveilig
As a televison reporter Peter ter Velde reported from many war zones and crisis areas such as Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Haiti and Indonesia.
From 1996 to 2001, Peter was an Israel based correspondent for the Dutch national broadcaster NOS.
From 2006 to 2010 he was a special reporter on Afghanistan where he stayed for 4 to 5 months a year.
Back in the Netherlands Peter developed the training ‘Reporting in Conflict Zones’ that is given a couple of times a year by the academy of the Journalists Union. He is also instructor of the Hostile Environment Safety Training of the European Broadcasting Union.
In 2015 Peter became Security Coordinator for NOS News. He is member of the Crisis Management Team of the NOS.
In 2019 he also became project manager of PersVeilig, an initiative by national police, the prosecutor’s office and the media industry to make work for journalists in the Netherlands safer.
Peter is owner of the company PTV-Training
Janis Makarewich-Hall
Deputy Director at Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Ivor Gaber
The UK rep for UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of Communication
An independent media consultant and the first Professor of Political Journalism at the University of Sussex, Ivor Gaber is an elected member of UNESCO’s inter-governmental Council of the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC).
An expert practitioner, teacher and researcher in political journalism, Professor Gaber has been widely published, is a frequent keynote speaker at conferences worldwide, and has devised and run training courses and media projects for journalists in new and post-conflict democracies in Africa, Asia and Europe.
In addition to former academic roles at Goldsmith’s London and the University of Bedfordshire, Ivor’s previous experience as a reporter, producer and programme editor spans the major news channels including BBC TV and Radio, ITN, Channel Four and Sky News and national newspapers. He is currently an election consultant for ITV News and has advised UK Government departments, the European Union and the Council of Europe.
Described by Guy Berger (UNESCO’s Director for Freedom of Expression and Media Development) as ‘the father of the United Nations Plan to protect journalists’, Pofessor Gaber has made a major contribution to the work of the UN and is a passionate advocate of freedom of expression.
Alina Tatarenko
Head of Division for Cooperation on Freedom of Expression, Council of Europe
The Division for Cooperation on Freedom of Expression helps the Council of Europe member States and beyond improve their policies, legislation, environment and capacities in the area of freedom of expression, media, and access to information, in line with the European standards. It works with ministries, parliaments, audio-visual regulators, law enforcement, journalists, public broadcasters, self-regulatory bodies, civil society and media watchdogs. It provides legal and policy advice, capacity building, training and awareness-raising through cooperation projects in 20 countries. Areas of intervention include safety of journalists; countering SLAPPs; ensuring transparency of media ownership; countering disinformation; promoting media literacy; strengthening governance of public service media; aligning the national legal framework and practice with the standards of the Council of Europe and the case-law of the ECtHR related to freedom of expression (Article 10 of the ECHR); improving quality of journalism; ensuring access to information.
Julie Posetti
Global Director of Research at the International Center for Journalists and Professor of Journalism at City St George's, University of London
Julie Posetti is the Global Director of Research at the International Center for Journalists. She previously was a Senior Research Fellow at the RISJ and led the Journalism Innovation Project at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. She researches at the intersection of journalism, digital media, and freedom of expression. Posetti is the author of Protecting Journalism Sources in the Digital Age (UNESCO 2017) and the co-editor of Journalism, ‘Fake News’ and Disinformation (UNESCO 2018). She was awarded her PhD in December 2018, and her academic research has been published internationally in peer reviewed journals and scholarly books.
Known for her early research and reporting about the transformative impacts of social media practice on journalism (from the clash of private and public spheres, to new patterns of audience engagement, and challenges to traditional modes of verification), Posetti has also been at the forefront of understanding and documenting converging Digital Age threats to investigative journalism, in particular journalistic source confidentiality.