Meet the Speakers!

eavi (European Association for viewers interests)

Paolo Celot

Paolo Celot is the Founder and Secretary-General of EAVI. Over the last twenty-five years, he has accumulated experience in media working in London, Milan and Brussels. He is an expert on media literacy for the European Commission, a member of the Steering Committee on Media and Information Society at the Council of Europe, a member of the Active Citizenship Group for the European Commission, and a member of the Advisory Board of the European Audiovisual Observatory. Paolo has authored books and Europe-wide studies covering 27 countries and 20 different languages.

London school of Economics and political science

Prof. Sonia Livingstone

Sonia Livingstone, DPhil (Oxon), OBE, FBA, FBPS, FAcSS, FRSA, is a professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the director of the Digital Futures Commission and the Global Kids Online project. Sonia has advised many major European and International bodies like the European Commission, the OECD and UNICEF on children’s internet safety and rights in the digital environment. She has received five honorary doctorates, several international prizes and has published 20 books on media literacy.

Alan Turing INstitute, University of oxford

Dr. Christopher Burr

Dr. Christopher Burr is a senior research associate of the Public Policy Programme of the Alan Turing Institute and a research associate of the Oxford Internet Institute of the University of Oxford. His work is focused on how digital technologies have reshaped our understanding of well-being, and on the new opportunities and risks that these technologies pose for human flourishing. Dr. Burr has held previous posts at the University of Bristol, where he explored the ethical and epistemological impact of big data and artificial intelligence and completed his PhD in 2001.

Dutch Academy for Media & Society

Liesbeth Hop

Liesbeth Hop is seen as one of the Dutch authorities on media literacy. Her mission is to improve the media literacy of youth, parents, teachers, corporate companies and governments. She founded Media Rakkers and the Dutch Academy for Media & Society, a highly respected educational institute for media literacy trainings and workshops. In 2007, she developed the highly successful post graduate National MediaCoach Training.

Autonomous University of Barcelona

Prof. José Manuel Pérez Tornero

José Manuel Pérez Tornero is a journalist and professor of journalism and communication science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, as well as the director of the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy and Quality Journalism Chair. He acts as expert consultant on media literacy for UNESCO, the EU and various international organizations. He directs the Communication and Education Cabinet (UAB) and EduMediaLab, a laboratory dedicated to research on innovation in communication and education.

Université sorbonne nouvelle

Prof. Divina Frau-Meigs

Divina Frau-Meigs is a professor and media sociologist at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle in France, where she created the master programme AIGEME and coordinates the research on media and globalization in the international CREW research group. She is a founding member of the European Consortium for Communications Research and a member of the scientific council of the CIEM as well as of the ECREA. She acts as an expert for UNESCO, the European Commission, the Council of Europe and other government bodies.

University of Tampere

Prof. Tapio Varis

Prof. Tapio Varis (Professor emeritus) has worked in many functions throughout his career, among others as Chair of Professional Education at the University of Tampere, as UNESCO Chair in Global E-Learning, as a member of the European Commission Media Literacy Expert Group and as Rector of the University for Peace (created by the UN) in Costa Rica. He has authored approximately 200 scientific articles on topics like global peace, new media and cultural identity and continues to contribute to print and broadcast media.

European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)

Renate Schroeder

Renate Schroeder is the Director of the European Federation of Journalists and an advocate at European level and in the Council of Europe. She presents the EFJ internationally and advises EFJ expert groups on broadcasting, media literacy and digital journalism. She studied International Relations and Political Science and worked for the United Nations, FAST in Berlin and the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation in Brussels.

European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)

Ricardo Gutiérrez

Ricardo Gutiérrez is General Secretary of the European Federation of Journalists and a senior lecturer at Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). Former journalist for the Belgian daily newspaper “Le Soir”, he is a member of the Belgian Press Council (CDJ) and of the EU High Level Expert Group on Disinformation and has conducted training for journalists on hate speech, ethical journalism and reporting on ethnicity and religion.

Facebook

Aura Salla

As Head of EU Affairs, Aura Salla oversees Facebook’s engagement on EU policies with the European Institutions and Member States. Before joining Facebook, Aura worked in the EC as a Foreign Policy and Communications Adviser in the European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC), in-house think tank to President Jean-Claude Juncker. Previously she served as a Member of Cabinet of Jyrki Katainen, EC Vice President responsible for jobs, growth, investment and competitiveness.

European University Cyprus

Dr. Charis Xinari

Dr. Charis Xinari is an Associate Professor in Critical and Cultural Theory at the European University Cyprus. Her research angle is gender and identity. Over the last few years, her research interests have focused on identity formation and uses of new media, with a special interest in critical media literacy. She has been a member of the Scientific Committee of the ESF Forward Look on Media Studies and co-author of the Final report “New Media, New Literacies” and is currently the coordinator of the European MediaCoach Initiative (EMCI), an Erasmus+ KA3 funded project.

Lie Detectors

Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck

Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck is the founder and director of Lie Detectors, an award-winning media-literacy organisation in Europe that helps young people and teachers sort facts from fakes and understand professional journalism. Juliane represented Lie Detectors within the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on Digital Disinformation and Fake News and has advised politicians and lawmakers on anti-radicalisation and lateral literacy in an age of media pluralism. She is an award-winning journalist who previously wrote for The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Newsweek and others.

European Commission

Audrius Perkauskas

Audrius Perkauskas is deputy head of unit “Audiovisual and Media Services Policy” at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (CONNECT). During his 15 years at the Commission and DG Connect, he has acquired the experience of policy-making and regulation in several areas of digital economy and society: telecoms, data economy and media – copyright, audiovisual regulation, media freedom and pluralism, media literacy. Before joining the European Commission, Audrius Perkauskas worked as a lawyer, lecturer at Vilnius University and advisor to the President of the Republic of Lithuania.

Facebook

Ania Helseth

Ania Helseth is IP lawyer graduated from the University of Oxford and specialized in the EU law at the University of Amsterdam. She has a long public policy experience in Brussels. Ania worked for the European Parliamen at the beginning of her career and was a telecom attache at the Permanent Representation of Poland to the EU. She held various positions at the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU and headed public policy for the Association of Sattelite Operators. She joined Facebook in May 2016 and focused on issues around content regulation, copyright, AVMS and intermediary liability.