How Media Legal Defence Initiative Protects the Rights of Journalists

March 19, 2015

Victories and Challenges for Media Defense: A Conversation with Media Legal Defense Initiative (March 12, 2015)

The London-based organization Media Legal Defence Initiative currently works in 40 countries around the world defending journalists, bloggers, and independent media against legal threats, as well as conducting strategic litigation and building the capacity of lawyers.

Media Legal Defence Initiative’s Peter Noorlander and Nani Jansen were recently joined by Dirk Voorhoof, professor of law at Ghent and Copenhagen Universities, to discuss key challenges facing journalists today. Among other cases, they examined the wider implications of the pivotal judgment Media Legal Defence Initiative won at the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in December 2014, which held that imprisonment for libel violates free speech and that criminal law should be used sparingly against journalists.

Above, listen to them discuss this and Media Legal Defence Initiative’s other work across Africa, Asia, and Europe, which ranges from representing Azeri journalists before the European Court of Human Rights to working alongside Zambian and Singaporean lawyers in the defense of libel and “false news” cases.

Listen above.

Topics

Independent Journalism, Media Freedom, Criminal Justice, Freedom of Information

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