Eric Yan-ho Lai, Research Fellow, Center for Asian Law Georgetown University

Eric Yan-ho Lai is a research fellow at Georgetown Center for Asian Law (GCAL), an associate fellow at the Hong Kong Studies Hub of the University of Surrey and a member of the Asian Civil Society Research Network. He obtained  his Ph.D in law at SOAS University of London in 2022. His main research focuses on law and society, law and social movement, national security, judicial politics and international human rights law. Lai is formerly a visiting fellow at the Centre for Comparative and Public Law at the University of Hong Kong, and formerly visiting researcher at King’s College London. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Lai has been involved in civil society development and human rights advocacy since 2010. 

Chung Ching Kwong, Senior Analyst at Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China

Chung Ching Kwong is a political and digital rights activist from Hong Kong. She is the founder and former spokesperson of Keyboard Frontline, an organization dedicated to monitoring online censorship and digital rights, and a columnist at Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper with one of the largest readerships in Hong Kong before being shut down. Glacier first got involved in activism in 2012 due to Hong Kong’s proposal of a copyright amendment bill that would undermine freedom of speech on the internet. She has vocally criticized the use of surveillance technology and artificial intelligence to pursue authoritarian ends by the Chinese regime. Kwong is the Hong Kong Campaigns Coordinator at the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) and is now pursuing her Ph.D. in law at the University of Hamburg, where she lives in exile.

Michael Caster, Asia Digital Program Manager ARTICLE 19

Michael Caster is a human rights advocate and researcher specializing in China and Southeast Asia. He is currently the Asia digital program manager with ARTICLE 19, where he manages projects on internet freedom and digital rights. In 2016 he co-founded Safeguard Defenders, a regional human rights organization with a focus on China, and with whom he continues to serve as senior advisor. Michael previously worked with Civil Rights Defenders. In 2008, he was a co-founder of the Chinese Urgent Action Working Group in Beijing, until the organization was crippled in 2016 in a country-wide crackdown on the human rights movement. He consults with the Minority Rights Group, Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists, and others. He holds degrees in international law and human rights from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands.

Doreen Weisenhaus, Associate Professor and Director, Media Law and Policy Initiative, Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, Northwestern University

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. Weisenhaus is also the author of Hong Kong Media Law: A Guide for Journalists and Media Professionals. 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.