Steven M. Ellis is director of advocacy and communications for the Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI), the world’s oldest global press freedom organisation, and he previously served as IPI’s senior press freedom adviser, focusing on Europe and North America. Before joining IPI, he was a reporter for daily newspaper The Metropolitan News-Enterprise, covering appellate courts and the legal community in Los Angeles. He graduated magna cum laude from the Michigan State University College of Law and is a licensed attorney in Illinois and in Michigan, where he practiced law after serving as a legal clerk in the Office of Executive Counsel to the Governor of Michigan. He also previously worked in public and government relations.