Lady Tulkens is the former Vice-President of the European Court of Human Rights. She is a leading expert in criminal and criminal law and teaches as a university professor at UCLouvain (Belgium) and abroad. Lady Tulkens has written and heard of a number of notable cases involving freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and national security. Previously, she was an independent expert for the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and served on the Advisory Board on Human Rights of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo. She is also an associate member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium. – Lawyers who are at the forefront of promoting media freedom around the world, including in Russia, India, Pakistan, Uganda, South Africa and the Middle East Lord Neuberger is the former Chief Justice of the United Kingdom and former Master of the Rolls at the Court of Appeal. Lord Neuberger has been involved in some of the most important human rights and constitutional law cases in the UK, including the Black Spider Memos case, which concerned the legality of the UK government`s decision to refuse to publish letters from the Prince of Wales to government ministers. Lord Neuberger has also written extensively on freedom of expression and privacy issues and has been a temporary judge of Hong Kong`s Supreme Court of Appeal since 2010. He is currently President of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. When I spoke at the conference yesterday, I noted that media freedom around the world has been declining for more than a decade, and we see evidence of that on a daily basis. Just last month, Myanmar authorities blocked the internet in Rakhine State, where the military has committed horrific abuses against the Rohingya. Sudan`s military rulers shut down the internet to silence coverage of crimes against protesters. In recent years, media freedom and legitimate reporting by journalists have been undermined by populist leaders, even in supposedly democratic states.

Journalists and media outlets are accused of spreading “fake news” or other fragile crimes. Many authoritarian leaders around the world have attacked journalists in the past, in some cases even criminalized, even, as we fear, killed them for presenting an alternative narrative, exposing corruption and abuse, and trying to demand accountability. Unfortunately, some leaders of countries that have so far defended freedom of expression have issued statements encouraging these authoritarian leaders to intensify their attacks. In these conversations with the UK and Canadian governments, I set out my vision for the legal body, based on issues that I believe are priorities for reform: UNESCO manages the Global Media Defence Fund, an initiative supported by the UK and Canada in 2019. The Fund is a multi-stakeholder trust fund whose objective is to improve media protection and journalists` access to specialized legal assistance. Its particular niches are support for legal defence based on international media freedom standards, as well as investigative journalism, which contributes to the fight against impunity for crimes against journalists. Among other things, the Global Media Defense Fund supports IBAHRI`s work as the secretariat of the High-Level Group of Legal Experts on Media Freedom. Professor Park is a faculty member at Korea University School of Law and co-founder and director of Open Net Korea, where he specializes in issues of freedom of expression and media monopolization, as well as the enforcement of privacy, defamation and fake news laws. He is a member of the academic board of the Global Network Initiative and an advisor to the Freedom Online Coalition. Professor Park has also served as legal advisor to the Korean Film Council and Ministry of Culture, a member of the National Media Council, which advises the country`s legislature, and a commissioner of the Korea Communication Standards Commission, which regulates the country`s broadcast and online media.

I believe it is the responsibility of journalists to do their job by engaging in fact-based reporting that prioritizes accuracy over speed or clicks. I believe that legislators and judges should ensure that their country`s laws conform to international standards to which their government is a signatory, and that these laws are not misused to prosecute dissent. I believe that governments that respect press freedom should stand up to those that do not – by imposing real consequences on officials who violate human rights. In his talks with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, he made it clear that he wanted to launch a powerful new initiative that could bring about meaningful and lasting change, one that would continue to work regardless of the person or political party in power. He explained that the initiative would include the creation of an independent, international group of lawyers to advise governments on how to better protect press freedom, and a media freedom fund to facilitate journalists` access to legal advice and training. Sarah Cleveland is the Louis Henkin Professor of Human and Constitutional Rights and Co-Director of the Human Rights Institute at Columbia Law School. She is a recognized expert in the fields of human rights, national security, international law, and U.S. foreign relations. She is Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists and has served as Vice-President of the United Nations Human Rights Committee and American Independent Expert of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe. From 2009 to 2011, Professor Cleveland served as Legal Advisor to the Legal Counsel of the U.S.

Department of State, and in August 2021, Professor Cleveland was appointed Legal Counsel to the U.S. Department of State.