Global Freedom of Expression

Doreen Weisenhaus

Doreen Weisenhaus is a Senior Lecturer with a joint appointment at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law and the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing, where she also serves as Director of the Media Law and Policy Initiative. Her courses include Global Freedom of Expression and the Press (Pritzker), The Journalist Abroad: Legal Risks and Dilemmas (Medill), and Media Law and Government Transparency Practicum (a joint law-journalism offering). Prior to Northwestern, she taught media law and ethics at the University of Hong Kong (2000-2017), where she remains an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre. Before HKU, she was City Editor of The New York Times and the first legal editor of The New York Times Magazine before becoming its law and politics editor.

She was also editor-in-chief of The National Law Journal, a leading publication for lawyers in the U.S. that won several major journalism awards during her tenure; a prosecutor in New York City; a television news producer in Chicago, and a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal. She holds a JD from Northwestern’s law school and a BS in journalism from Medill, also at Northwestern.

Her research interests include international press freedom and global trends in media law and policy. She is the author of Hong Kong Media Law: A Guide for Journalists and Media Professionals (Hong Kong University Press 2007) and an expanded second edition in 2014. She is lead editor and co-author of Media Law and Policy in the Internet Age (Hart Publishing Oxford 2017) that documents and analyzes media law reform trends worldwide. She has contributed to a number of publications, including the International Encyclopedia of Communication (Communication Law and Policy: Asia) and the International Libel and Privacy Handbook.