Dr James Lewis completed his PhD in Ethics and International Affairs at Birmingham University in 1998. Since then, he has been a journalist and editor, writing for publications including the Independent on Sunday, the Guardian and Legal Business magazine. In 2008, he was highly commended at the Paul Foot Awards for campaigning and investigative journalism and in the same year won the Bar Council of England and Wales Legal Reporting Award. He has been the International Bar Association’s Director of Content since 2009.
Paul Crick has a first degree in French language and literature, a postgraduate diploma in Modern European Studies and a diploma in Translation (French:English). He has worked in legal publishing for nearly 25 years and prior to setting up his own consultancy in 2006 was Head of Publications at the International Bar Association.
Mark Stephens CBE is former Chair of the International Bar Association’s Media Law Committee. He specialises in international, appellate and complex litigation in the areas of constitutional law, human rights, intellectual property, media and regulatory work, defamation, privacy, data protection and freedom of information. Mark has undertaken some of the highest profile cases involving free expression. He has been described by the Law Society Gazette as ‘the patron solicitor of previously lost causes’, with a reputation for creativity with the law, and has created a niche in international comparative media law and regulation.
Mark was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his work in law and the arts and has been conferred with the Freedom of the City of London. He chairs a number of bodies, including the Management Committee of the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy, Wolfson College, Oxford University Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, sits on the board as a trustee of Index on Censorship, the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation, the Council of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute and is President of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association. Mark also sits on the advisory board of three university schools of media law and/or journalism and regularly appears in print and on radio and television.
Sir David Eady was called to the Bar in 1966 and specialised for the next 30 years in media law, taking silk in 1983. He served on the Calcutt Committee on Privacy in 1989–90 and on the Neill Committee on Defamation in 1990–91. He is a co-author (with Prof. ATH Smith) of The Law of Contempt, 4th edn (Sweet & Maxwell, 2011). From 1997 to 2013 he was a judge in the Queen’s Bench Division.
Onora O’Neill combines writing on political philosophy and ethics with a range of public activities. She comes from Northern Ireland and has worked mainly in Britain and the US. She was Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge from 1992–2006, President of the British Academy from 2005–09, chaired the Nuffield Foundation from 1998–2010, and has been a crossbench member of the House of Lords since 2000 (Baroness O’Neill of Bengarve). She currently chairs the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission and is on the board of the Medical Research Council. She lectures and writes on justice and ethics, accountability and trust, justice and borders, as well as on the future of universities, the quality of legislation and the ethics of communication, including media ethics.
Baroness O’Neill was appointed a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in the 2014 New Year Honours List.
Alan Rusbridger has been editor of the Guardian since 1995. He oversaw the integration of the paper and digital operations, and the Guardian is now the third largest English language newspaper website in the world. During his editorship the paper has fought a number of high-profile battles over libel and press freedom, including cases involving Neil Hamilton, Jonathan Aitken, the Police Federation, Trafigura, freedom of information and WikiLeaks. The Guardian has recently broken world exclusive stories by publishing NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden.
Alan has been named editor of the year three times. He and reporter Nick Davies received the UK’s Media Society Award for their revelations and coverage of the phone-hacking story in the Guardian. Alan was awarded the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism by Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Centre and received the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in the cause of press freedom from the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Pia Sarma is the Editorial Legal Director to Times Newspapers Limited, advising The Times and The Sunday Times editors and journalists on the law relating to newsgathering methods, and pre-publication issues including libel, privacy, contempt and data protection. She also oversees litigation defended by the newspapers.
Amber Melville-Brown runs the Media & Reputation Management team at Withers, protecting the privacy, reputation and valuable brands of its clients. She provides emergency support, advice, guidance, negotiation and litigation expertise for clients ranging from heads of state, Members of Parliament, high profile individuals in the arts, sports and music industries, professionals and entrepreneurs, family offices, charities and companies. She advises on media and reputational issues, privacy concerns, harassment, blackmail, in respect of the voicemail interception (phone-hacking) litigation brought against News International, pre-publication advice, post-publication action, emergency injunctive relief, press strategy advice and legal/PR engagement. Much of Amber’s advice has an international element and she has successfully advised clients in relation to international publications, publications on social media sites including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter and on the safe use of social media.
Gavin Millar QC is a founder member of the leading British human rights practice, Doughty Street Chambers. He specialises in defamation, privacy, contempt and reporting restrictions. He has appeared in numerous leading cases. He is the co-author of Media Law and Human Rights, 2nd edn (Oxford University Press, 2009). He is a Council of Europe expert on freedom of expression and is the Chair of the Centre for Investigative Journalism in London. In 2004 Gavin represented the media before the House of Lords in In Re S, the landmark case which determined how privacy and free speech rights would be balanced by the courts under the Human Rights Act 1998. In 2011 he represented the Telegraph Media Group at the Leveson Inquiry. He was recognised as the Chambers & Partners Privacy/Defamation Silk for 2012, and in 2013 advised the Guardian in relation to the disclosures made by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Robert Balin is Vice-Chair of the International Bar Association’s Media Law Committee. Robert is a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP in New York, where he specialises in media law and co-chairs his firm’s media law practice group. He also teaches media law as an adjunct professor at Columbia University School of Law.
Yuli Takatsuki is a barrister at 5 Raymond Buildings in Gray’s Inn, London, and specialises in media and entertainment law. She is a contributing author to Tugendhat and Christie: The Law of Privacy and the Media, 2nd edn (Oxford University Press, 2011).
Michael Harris is the Director of the Free Speech Bureau. He was Head of Advocacy at Index on Censorship from 2010–2014 and led Index’s work in the successful Libel Reform Campaign which changed England’s libel laws. He also led Index’s EU advocacy and digital advocacy, alongside campaigns in authoritarian regimes, including Belarus and Azerbaijan. Mike has worked on comparative press freedom reporting in Hungary and Macedonia and has recently written two reports on freedom of expression covering the transition in Burma and the state of freedom of expression in the EU. He was one of the US State Department’s Young Leaders of the Future in 2008.
Kirsty Hughes was Chief Executive of Index on Censorship between April 2012 and April 2014. Kirsty is a strategic and innovative leader whose career has focused on international current affairs and policy. She has written and published extensively across a range of leading international outlets as a journalist and as a policy analyst and researcher. Her writing ranges from books and policy papers to news analysis and blogs on a number of key international political issues and developments, with an in-depth focus on Europe and South Asia. Kirsty has worked for a range of organisations, including think tanks, NGOs and international organisations, and in senior roles at Chatham House, the Centre for European Policy Studies, Oxfam GB and the European Commission.
Jeffrey P. Hermes is the Director of the Digital Media Law Project at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, which is dedicated to providing a comprehensive set of online legal resources for independent journalists and online media ventures. Over the last 14 years, Jeff has represented an international media network and its subsidiaries, major metropolitan newspapers, local broadcasters on television and radio, Internet-based publishers and social media networks. He has written for numerous publications and spoken at a wide range of events on media law and other issues. Prior to joining the Berkman Center, Jeff assisted a wide array of clients in First Amendment, media, intellectual property and Internet law issues as a partner in the litigation practice of Brown Rudnick LLP and later as counsel to Hermes, Netburn, O’Connor & Spearing, P.C. in Boston. Jeff received his J.D. degree from Harvard Law School in 1997, and received his undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, from Princeton University in 1994.