Violence against journalists and human rights defenders has been on the rise in the last decade. With this in mind, Global Freedom of Expression at Columbia University (GFoE) has worked to expand its case law database with coordinated research seeking to capture and highlight judicial trends around the world. Senior researchers studied and explored new judicial decisions related to violence against journalists, pinpointing those that upheld international human rights standards and held states accountable for their actions and their obligation to prevent, protect, and punish those crimes. To promote the findings of the project, GFoE will be hosting a workshop series to train lawyers, journalists, and activists on regional jurisprudence, international human rights standards, and best practices. Each workshop in the series will focus on a different region(s) from around the world and allow speakers to share their perspectives on this important challenge and its impact on the future of democracy. 

The fifth workshop in this series will focus on regional findings in Europe. Speakers will refer to and discuss relevant case law in the region related to the protections of journalists. They will also share their viewpoints on the main global challenges to freedom of expression related to violence against journalists.

After this workshop, GFoE will have hosted five workshops focused on judicial trends and violence against journalists in Latin America, Asia, Europe, Middle East & Africa (MENA) as well as the universal human rights system. You can find all our previous workshops on our YouTube channel linked here. 

Please note the conversation will take place in English. 

Opening Remarks and Moderator: 

• Ramiro Alvarez Ugarte, Senior Researcher, Centro de Estudios en Libertad de Expresión (CELE)

Speakers:

• Tarlach McGonagle, Professor of Media Law & Information Society, Leiden Law School of the University of Amsterdam
• Tom Gibson, EU Representative, Committee to Protect Journalists
• Renate Schroeder, Director, European Federation of Journalists
• Sarah Clarke, Head of Europe & Asia, ARTICLE 19
• Giulia Lucchese, Secretary to the MSI-SLP, Council of Europe