Khaled Alesmael

Born in Syria, he studied English Literature at Damascus University. In 2005 he started his career as a journalist at Syria Tomorrow, one of the first independent radio stations in the country. Three years later, he became the Managing Director.In 2009 he received an Award as young journalist by the French Ambassador for his work to promote culture and the arts between France and Syria.

Also he was invited to the International Visitor Program in the US.In 2010 he became the correspondent to Radio Monte Carlo in Paris from Damascus.In 2011, he became a media associated to UNDP Damascus and delivered radio production training to young adults in Aleppo and Damascus.In 2012, he started to work at ONTV Egypt to document the life of the Syrian refugees in Egypt. In 2013 he delivered workshops on alternative media and radio production to young citizen journalists from Syria.He also produced several radio programs to promote social and democratic values to citizens including the White Helmets (Syrian Civil Defence) and displaced Syrians.In 2015, he was granted asylum in Sweden. He joined SVT as a researcher and reporter for Investigative Mission, one of the most prestigious programs in Swedish TV. He has also participated in several seminars and lectures about Syria and the Media.

Lorena Boix Alonso

Lorena Boix Alonso is the Head of Unit for Converging Media and Content Unit, Directorate General for Communications Networks Content and Technology since July 2012. Formerly, she was Deputy Head of Cabinet of Vice President Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda. During Ms Kroes’ mandate as Commissioner for Competition, Lorena Boix Alonso commenced in October 2004 as a member of her Cabinet and became Deputy Head of Cabinet in May 2008.

She holds a Master of Laws, with a focus on Antitrust Law and Intellectual Property, from the Harvard Law School. She graduated in Law from the University of Valencia (Spain) and then obtained a Licence Spéciale en Droit Européen from the Université Libre de Bruxelles.She joined the European Commission Directorate-General for Competition in 2003. Prior to that, she has worked for Judge Rafael García Valdecasas, at the European Court of Justice, as well as Deputy Director and Legal Coordinator of the IPR-Helpdesk Project and in private practice in Brussels.

Marzia Bona

Online Editor and Research Assistant, MA in International Relations at the University of Bologna, she specialized in area studies focusing on South-East Europe.

Part of the OBC team since 2013, she worked on the research project “Safety net for European journalists” and contributed to other research activities on civil society and regional cooperation. Since May 2015, she is responsible for the Resource Centre on Media Freedom within the project “European Center for Press and Media Freedom”.

Alexenia Dimitrova

Mrs. Alexenia Dimitrova is investigative journalist and researcher with more than 25 years experience. Her articles have been published in more than 40 media in Bulgaria, Croatia, Russia, UK and USA. She is author of 4 books with documentary investigations – ‘The Iron Fist’ (2005, London), ‘The War of Spies’ (2005), ‘The King’s Secret Files’ (2009), “Murder Bureau” (2010). Recently Dimitrova was part the global team of International Consortium of Investigative Journalists which published “Panama Papers”.

Dimitrova’s primary field of expertise are large cross-border international journalistic investigations. She has been part of multinational media projects of “Financial Times”, NBC (USA), SBS (Australia), BBC, Channel 4 and UKTV (UK), SVT and Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden), NRK and Dagbladet (Norway), The Bureau for Investigative Journalism (UK), Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Global Integrity (USA), International Consortium for Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) etc.Dimitrova bases her publications on deep research in public records, databases, electronic reading rooms, online access to information opportunities and platforms for sharing information. Additionally she uses actively Freedom of Information Acts internationally.She is visiting professor on Investigative journalism in Sofia University and has been training mid career journalists in Bulgaria and around the World.

Ricardo Gutiérrez

General Secretary of the European Federation of JournalistsRicardo Gutiérrez is General Secretary of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the largest journalists’ organisation in Europe, representing over 320,000 journalists in 43 countries. Former journalist for the Belgian daily newspaper “Le Soir”, he is senior lecturer at Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). He is also member of the Belgian Press Council (CDJ) and the Executive Committee of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). He has conducted training for journalists on hate speech, ethical journalism and reporting on ethnicity and religion. In 2014 and 2015, he has been involved in the dialogue between Ukrainian and Russian journalists’ organisations, in Vienna, under the auspices of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatovic. You can catch a bigger glimpse into his interests (i.e. journalism and media) by following him on Twitter @Molenews1.

Miguel Poiares Maduro

Miguel Poiares Maduro is Professor at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute where he was the Founding Director of the Global Governance Programme (from 2010 to 2013). From 2013 to 2015 we was Minister Deputy to the Prime Minister and Minister for Regional Development in Portugal. Until 2009 he was Advocate General at the European Court of Justice. From May of this year he has been appointed Chairman of the new Governance and Review Committee of FIFA. He was a member of the EU High Level Group on Media Freedom and Pluralism. He has been a regular Visiting Professor at Yale Law School, the College of Europe and Universidades Católica and Nova in Portugal. He has also taught at the London School of Economics, the Centro de Estudios Constitucionales (Madrid) and Chicago Law School. He is a Doctor of Laws by the European University Institute (Florence) and was the first winner of the Rowe and Maw Prize and winner of the Prize Obiettivo Europa (for the best PhD thesis at the EUI). He has been Fulbright Visiting Research Scholar at Harvard Law School. He is Co-Director of the Academy of International Trade Law (Macao). He belongs to the editorial or advisory board of several law journals, including the European Law Journal and the Common Market Law Review and was founding editor of Global Constitutionalism. He has been honoured by the President of the Portuguese Republic with the Order of Sant’Iago da Espada for literary, scientific and artistic merit. In 2010 he was awarded the Gulbenkian Science Prize.

Tarlach McGonagle

Dr. Tarlach McGonagle is a senior researcher and lecturer at the Institute for Information Law (IViR), Faculty of Law, University of Amsterdam and at the School of Human Rights Research in the Netherlands. He regularly writes expert reports on freedom of expression, media law and policy and journalism for various branches of the Council of Europe, OSCE, other IGOs and NGOs. He was Rapporteur of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on protection of journalism and safety of journalists (2014-15) and is currently a member of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on media pluralism and transparency of media ownership. He is a member of the Euromedia Research Group.McGonagle’s main research interests include: freedom of expression; international and comparative media regulation and policy; the future of news and journalism; minorities and the media (the focus of his Ph.D. thesis, University of Amsterdam, 2008), and the interface between (information and communication) technologies and human rights. His latest book (co-edited with Y. Donders) is: The United Nations and Freedom of Expression and Information: Critical Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 2015).

Tassos Morfis

Tassos Morfis is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the crowdfunded and independent Greek news start-up “AthensLiveGr”. He’s been working as an editor and producer for the Athens-based online magazine Popaganda.gr and as news and documentary producer with FOSPHOTOS for foreign press. One of the documentaries he was involved as an assistant producer is Paul Mason’s #ThisIsACoup. Tassos is also a Robert Bosch Stiftung – Reporters in the Field fellow and a consultant and the Council of Europe’s media project called “Diversity Accelerator: New Media Tools Mentoring Programme”.

Pier Luigi Parcu

Pier Luigi Parcu is part-time Professor at the European University Institute (EUI) from 2010. Prof, Parcu is currently Director of the ENTraNCE, of the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom, and of the FSR Communications & Media at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the EUI. He is also Chairman of a consultancy company specialized in antitrust and regulatory issues of network industries. From 2000 to 2003, he has been CEO of the Independent System Operator running the Italian Electricity Grid (GRTN).

From 1991 to 2000 he was the Director of Investigation at the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) in charge of several regulated sectors. Previously, he served as Chief Economist at the Italian Security and Exchange Commission (CONSOB) and as Economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). His research in the area of industrial organization and law and economics focuses on the interaction between regulation and antitrust in shaping firms’ behaviour in network industries. As regards research in the media area,

Prof. Parcu’s interests focus on the effects of ownership concentration and internal governance of the media enterprise on pluralism and freedom of expression. Finally, among the most recent interests of research and publication, Prof. Parcu is looking at the Internet’s effects on traditional business models and its influence on new economic developments such as the sharing economy and smart cities.

Gill Phillips

Gillian Phillips is Director of Editorial Legal Services for Guardian News & Media Limited (publishers of the Guardian and Observer newspapers and theguardian.com).

She qualified in 1984 and joined the BBC as an in-house lawyer in 1987, later working for News Group Newspapers and Times Newspapers, where she advised on pre- and post-publication legal issues, including around defamation, open justice, contempt of court, privacy and national security.She moved to Guardian News & Media in May 2009 and has advised on phone-hacking, Wikileaks, the Leveson Inquiry, the NSA leaks from Edward Snowden and more recently the HSBC files and the Panama Papers. She also sits as a part-time Employment Tribunal Judge and co-authors the College of Law Employment Law handbook.

Damian Tambini

is Research Director and Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications of the LSE, and head of the MSC in Communication Governance. Damian is also an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research and at the Oxford Internet Institute.

He serves on the Editorial Commission for the Open Society Foundation’s Mapping Digital Media Project and the UK Board of Reporters Without Borders. Between 2002 and 2006 he directed Oxford Universtity’s Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy.

Damian has authored numerous articles and books on media law and policy and political communication.

Aidan White

Director of the Ethical Journalism Network, a global campaign promoting good governance and ethical conduct in media.

He is the former chairman of the Appointments Panel of the IMPRESS Project, the UK independent press regulator. He was the General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists from 1987 until April 2011.

He previously worked for several newspapers in the United Kingdom. He was with The Guardian in London prior to joining the IFJ. He is a long-time campaigner for journalists’ rights and is a former activist with the National Union of Journalists in Great Britain and Ireland.