Jonathan McCully is a Legal Officer at the Media Legal Defence Initiative, an organisation that helps provide legal assistance to journalists, bloggers and independent media outlets around the world before domestic and international courts. For instance, Mr McCully has been involved in cases before the European Court of Human Rights, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. He has also worked on cases before domestic courts in Uganda, Singapore and Tanzania. He has trained lawyers from East and Southern Africa on freedom of expression and media law, and is a supervisor at the University of Edinburgh Freedom of Expression Law Clinic.

Mr McCully has a Bachelor of Laws from Trinity College Dublin, and a Masters of Laws in Information Technology, Media and Communications Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has a particular interest in media law matters; and has published widely on freedom of expression, privacy, open justice, human rights and intellectual property. His articles have been published by the International Forum for Responsible Media Blog and the Media Law Resource Centre.