Armen Sargsyan is a media and education expert and project manager. He has hosted TV and radio programmes, implemented award-winning multimedia projects, produced films and designed communication strategies and academic courses in Armenia, Europe, the USA and Russia. He is a US Government Hubert Humphrey Fellowship award winner, as well as holder of several national and international professional prizes. He is interested in media literacy, media entrepreneurship and digital media innovation and education. He is also the author of books and publications on modern media education, and holds a master’s degree in Linguistics. Currently, he is director of media programmes at the Armenia Civics for Engagement project.

Nikolay Marchenko is a journalist with 14 years of experience in Bulgaria, the Republic of Moldova and Russian media outlets. He is a Bulgarian, Russian and Romanian-speaking journalist with expertise in the energy sector and economic topics. He was a correspondent for Russia’s Kommersant Daily for Bulgaria and Romania. Since 2017, he has been working for leading investigative media outlet Bivol.bg (OCCRP and WikiLeaks Partner for Bulgaria) as a reporter and Russian version editor. His investigations are on trans-border projects, Russia’s TurkStream 2 gas pipeline, Lukoil Bulgaria tax avoidance schemes, Nicolas Maduro’s millions in Bulgarian banks, exports of Bashar al-Assad’s phosphates into Europe and investigations into bribery concerning the export of Bulgaria’s weapons to Ukraine via Romania and Poland. He has been deputy editor-in-chief of Bivol since October 2022.

Arijana Kladar Terzić has dedicated her career to working in media and communications, at both a national and international level. She works as a content coordinator for RTL Television in Croatia, focusing on streaming services and digital development. She received a Francis Vals Traineeship in the European Parliament in Brussels, and also worked as a policy and communications assistant to a Member of the European Parliament. With other co-authors from the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Political Science and Human Rights House Zagreb, she worked on the publication Guideposts to Free and Accountable Media, focusing on human rights in non-profit media in Croatia.

Gyula Csák is an experienced journalist, manager and trainer with a strong international background (Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, RFE/RL, BBC, Euronews) and more than 25 years of experience in broadcast and online media. He loves working in a multinational environment and has an excellent network of media professionals all over Europe, from Spain to Ukraine. Gyula has fulfilled different management positions with increased responsibilities in the past 15 years, and has excellent knowledge of journalism in theory and practice.

Dionizas Litvaitis is a freelance journalist, media analyst and project manager working in the Baltic states. His work has been published in Are We Europe, New Eastern Europe, BBC, Euronews, The Telegraph, Mediapart and NBC News. He has contributed to TV reports and documentaries from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia commissioned by ITV, BBC, CNA, ZDF, Sky News, NPO, Netflix, TV4 and France3. He has also worked on research and educational projects with IREX, MIT ACT and the Forum on Information & Democracy, and was a Baltic Correspondent for Reporters Without Borders from 2018 to 2022. Recently he has been teaching a course on Baltic journalism at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki.

Nino Macharashvili is a co-founder and director at ForSet, a data-driven communications organisation based in Tbilisi, Georgia. Prior to this, she worked as a data journalist and projects coordinator at JumpStart Georgia for almost five years. She holds a BA in Journalism and an MA in Creative and Media Enterprises. With a passion for connecting data enthusiasts from various professional backgrounds and sectors, she founded DataFest Tbilisi in 2017, the first annual international data conference in the South Caucasus.

Alfredo Casares is the founder and director of the Instituto de Periodismo Constructivo, an organisation that works with journalists, media outlets and universities to develop training programmes and consultancy on solutions journalism. He is a Solutions Journalism LEDE Fellow 2021 and author of the book La hora del periodismo constructivo. He has worked for the Miami Herald as City Editor for El Nuevo Herald and as the director of new content at Diario de Navarra (Spain), where he founded the first Innovation Media Lab at a Spanish newspaper. He has led projects that have received more than 10 national and international awards. He has also received an Acumen Fellowship for social impact.

Catarina Fernandes Martins has been travelling the world as a foreign correspondent and screenwriting for documentaries and TV in Portugal and the United States. She is one of the co-producers of the documentary From Devil’s Breath, directed by Academy Award winner Orlando von Einsiedel and produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. Her work has appeared in PBS’s Emmy Award-winning show Articulate, the Guardian, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, PRI’s The World and Foreign Policy. She has won awards and recognition in Portugal and abroad, including Portugal’s highest journalistic award in the category of young journalist of the year, as well as an International Women’s Media Foundation fellowship. She has also trained as a radio producer with the Transom Story Workshop. https://catarinafmartins.com/

Zaklina Hadji Zafirova is an investigative journalist, trainer, editor, project manager and consultant in the media sphere. She has been working for many domestic and international media outlets and organisations such as Transitions Online, the Institute for War and Peace, Danish SCOOP, Journalism Fund and others. She was working as an investigative journalist and reporter for the daily Utrinski vesnik, one of the leading newspapers in the country, after which she established the Center for Investigative Journalism SCOOP-Macedonia. Lately, she has been upgrading her professional career by giving training to young students in journalism and media literacy.

Valentina Vivona is a multimedia journalist and communications expert with 10 years’ worth of experience. She has a background in Environmental Economics and Peace Studies and focuses on environmental and social issues, with bylines in national and international outlets such as Altreconomia and Are We Europe. In 2014, Vivona won the Roberto Morrione award for an investigative video on illicit waste disposal in Rome for RaiNews. She has lived and worked in Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Spain and France. Vivona also carried out transnational European projects on media-related issues and data journalism for the non-profit organisation Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa from 2017 to 2022.

Lidija Pisker is a freelance journalist and researcher whose work has been published by the Guardian, BBC, openDemocracy, Euronews and numerous other international media outlets. She has authored several media research studies for the South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM) and IREX’s Media Sustainability Index. Pisker is the winner of UN and UNICEF journalism prizes for journalistic contributions to tolerance, inclusiveness and prevention of discrimination. She is also the recipient of a special plaque under the Bosnia and Herzegovina journalism award Srđan Aleksić for professional reporting on marginalised groups and the development of socially responsible journalism. www.lidijapisker.com

Mirva Villa works as a journalist at PolicyTracker, reporting on spectrum management and policy globally. She holds an MA in International Relations from Anglia Ruskin University, and a BA in Multimedia Journalism from Bournemouth University. Her background also includes local news, media monitoring and digital communications.

Anne Grietje Franssen is a historian, researcher and journalist from Amsterdam, living on a car-free island off the Swedish west coast. She currently works as a Scandinavia correspondent for Dutch daily newspaper Trouw and publishes essays and longreads for Dutch and Belgian titles like Vrij Nederland, NRC, Knack en De Groene Amsterdammer. She used to work as an environmental reporter at Trouw’s offices before her move up north. Her academic background is in both (post-colonial) history and journalism, but these days she directs most of her attention to the acute climate crisis and alternatives to a western, consumer-based society.

Juliana da Penha is a freelance journalist. She is the founder of Migrant Women Press, an independent media outlet focused on the experiences of migrant women. She is from Brazil, where she worked as a reporter for nearly a decade and wrote about hip-hop culture and social movements. She has lived in Portugal, Cape Verde, Italy and the United Kingdom. She is now based in Scotland and writes about migration, race, inequalities, social justice and culture. She has worked in the charity sector in Italy and Scotland, doing community development and empowering migrant communities, especially women. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Cultural Studies and Communication and a master’s degree in Human Rights and International Politics.

Riin Aljas is a data journalist working for Estonia’s Delfi Meedia AS investigative team. She was previously a Scripps Howard Data Journalism Fellow at Newsy’s investigative team. She has held reporting and data journalism positions at several newspapers and media teams both in Estonia and in the United States.

Javid Ramazanov is an independent journalist based in Baku, Azerbaijan. He has received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in publishing and media management. He has worked as an intern with the Kyiv Post newspaper, participated in the USA’s International Visitor Leadership Program and worked with the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. He has also worked as an editor, columnist and TV presenter for various social, political and cultural projects. He is the author of two books.

Stefania Matache is a Romanian independent journalist. In the last seven years, she has produced written and video content for various Romanian and international media outlets on topics ranging from human rights violations to environmental issues. Previously, she was a staff reporter for VICE. She is currently based in Cologne, Germany, where she is an MA student in Digital Narratives with the Internationale.

Magdalena Sodomková is a Czech documentarist and investigative journalist with over 17 years of experience. She also works as a fixer for numerous international media organisations (ARTE, De Volkskrant, Dagens Nygeter, the Guardian, Nieuwsuur, Al Jazeera and more). She has published a true-crime podcast and a book called The Mathematics of Crime about justice and media capture. This story is being filmed by director Peter Bebjak, and she will be one of the protagonists. She has also received several journalism awards (the best interview or the best audiovisual story by OSF, Czech German Journalist prize Milena Jesenska, and more).

Peter Hanák is a journalist, researcher and university teacher. He founded and leads the podcasting department of the biggest Slovak news website Aktuality.sk, and hosts video interviews and debates with politicians. He has more than 15 years of experience; previously he worked as a reporter for the Slovak public service broadcaster RTVS, as well as for economic daily and regional weekly newspapers. He holds a PhD in media studies, and his research is focused on media capture, media law and democracy. Currently, he is a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Comenius University Bratislava, teaching law and economics. As a researcher, he also collaborates with the International Press Institute.

Masha Chelova is a multilingual freelance documentary producer, project manager and educator with a main focus on current affairs, culture and society. She has interviewed Nobel Laureates in Economics, and has contributed to projects from the BBC, Channel4 and ARTE, among others. She holds a PhD in Social Science and teaches yoga.

Gülsin Harman is an Istanbul-based journalist who frequently contributes to The New York Times and BBC Monitoring. She has worked in cross-functional teams for enterprise stories, research projects and building products. After a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in 2020, she was selected to join the Product Immersion Program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. At NewsLabTurkey, she mentored local journalists in product thinking and narrative journalism. Her team developed a product prototype in the ICFJ’s News Innovation Lab to foster engagement and trust in journalism. She has also investigated coordinated digital harassment of journalists for the International Press Institute.

Bojana Konatar is a policy researcher, project manager and consultant in the media sector. Over the last seven years she has been working with the Trade Union of Media of Montenegro, trying to map, research and improve the socio-economic and professional position of employees in the media. She has previously worked as a journalist as well as an associate at the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Montenegro. She is the author and co-author of numerous studies dealing with the socio-economic position of journalists, safety of journalists, media freedom and digital media, as well as studies dealing with the impact of defamation and insult lawsuits on journalists.

Shkelqim Hysenaj is a senior journalist, social media producer and media activist. He has worked as a journalist for the main media outlets in Kosovo spanning television, newspapers and online. He also has several years’ worth of experience working in international media. In addition to working in journalism, Hysenaj was elected president of the Association of Journalists of Kosovo in 2016, organising and participating in various actions regarding the safety of journalists and media freedom in Kosovo, the region and beyond. In addition to journalism and activism, he offers consulting services in marketing and communications, especially to civil society organisations.

Elizabeth De Gaetano works as a freelance writer and researcher. She collaborates with The Shift News and has also collaborated with international organisations such as the International Press Institute (IPI) and Are We Europe. Her work focuses on several aspects of press freedom in Malta, the impact of disinformation and propaganda campaigns, and how people consume information.

Iliana Papangeli is a journalist and anthropologist based in Athens, Greece. She is the director of the Greek non-profit investigative outlet Solomon. She also co-authored The Logbook of Moria, which was shortlisted for the European Press Prize in 2021. In 2022, the same story won an IJ4EU Impact Award, a European award for cross-border investigative journalism. Papangeli was an IJ4EU fellow in 2021. She specialises in covering refugee issues, the environment and food systems. Her work has appeared in international outlets such as The New Humanitarian, Balkan Insight, Mediapart and openDemocracy.

Dr Anna Wójcik is a researcher and journalist focusing on democratic backsliding in the European Union, media systems and freedom of expression. She has more than 10 years’ worth of experience working in successful media non-profit organisations in Poland as a journalist, manager and fundraiser. She has co-authored recent Freedom House Nations in Transit reports on Poland.

Artyom Liss is an experienced newsroom leader and media development specialist with a particular interest in Eastern Europe and a focus on the Belarusian and Russian markets. His expertise covers editorial management, broadcast-to-digital transitions and digital audio. He is also an award-winning broadcaster and on-air analyst, with a specialism in former Soviet Union countries. He covered the region extensively for the BBC, before taking on the management of the BBC’s European region. Since 2018, he has worked in media development, training and consulting with most independent Belarusian media outlets.

J Wegner is a social impact and media researcher and consultant, who has worked with UNESCO, DW Akademie and fesmedia, among other organisations. Initially a practising journalist, J combined this with studies in International Development to focus on media development and more specifically, media innovation viability. J is also a Media Lab Bayern R&D fellow, exploring how journalism can help bring people into civic action and currently working as a Project Lead on Exile Journalism with Media in Cooperation and Transition. In addition, J is interested in exploring alternatives to traditional development models as a consultant, fundraiser and founder of two independent initiatives.

Shaun Lavelle is a freelance editor, journalist and media and communications consultant. Previously, he was a lecturer in English at the University of Amsterdam for five years before making a career switch into media. He was senior editor at The Correspondent, a member-funded news platform with more than 50,000 members. He also does communications and brand messaging for foundations, international organisations and NGOs.

Daniela De Lorenzo is a reporter at POLITICO Europe, having freelanced as a journalist and researcher with media outlets such as Al Jazeera, Tortoise Media, BBC, Forbes, Deutsche Welle and Wired. She has lived in Belgium since 2017. She has been awarded three grants from the Journalism Fund to carry out in-depth and investigative journalist reportages, allowing her the possibility to give lectures on investigative journalist practices to students of the Thomas More postgraduate programme on International Investigative Journalism in Belgium.

Henrike M. Hirnstein is a freelance analyst, project manager and policy advisor on media, digital transformation and international partnerships. She conducts research and supports organisations with advocacy, strategy development, project design and fundraising. From 2014 until 2020, she worked as a project manager for international development agencies, advising on human rights dialogue, media development and citizen engagement. In line with her interest in information and technology, she co-founded a company developing services based on open data.

Kristian Redhead Ahm has worked as a research assistant and lecturer at the University of Copenhagen, teaching and researching in digital media, news and infrastructure. He is currently employed as an assistant professor at the Danish School of Media and Journalism, where he continues his work on understanding the impact of digital convergence on the media sector. He recently co-authored a report for the European Union on the state of media pluralism and freedom in Denmark in 2021.

Talía Olvera Martínez is a political scientist and linguist specialising in media innovation. She is a PhD candidate in Information and Communication Sciences at the Sorbonne University with a thesis on innovation and freedom of the independent press. She has worked as a political analyst, as a consultant for independent media organisations, as a French-Spanish translator, and as a lecturer in journalism and digital culture at various universities in France. Outside her work with the media, she has a particular interest in gender and migration issues and is an interpreter for asylum seekers in France.

Miha Turk is a journalist, critic, essayist and curator based in Ljubljana. He has a degree in History and Philosophy and is also involved in EU and national advocacy in the field of human rights, the right to asylum, and migration.