Editor-in Chief, Der Standard (Austria)
Alexandra Föderl-Schmid is editor-in-chief of the Austrian daily Der Standard since July 2007. The first woman to have held such a post, she previously reported extensively on European issues, including the wars in former Yugoslavia and EU enlargement. She is a graduate of the Wels Journalism School and gained her master’s degree at the University of Salzburg followed by a Doctorate in Communication Studies.

CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Boishakhai Television (Bangladesh)
Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul is the Editor-in-Chief & Chief Executive Officer of Boishakhi Television. His previous experiences include working for the country’s oldest newspaper - the Daily Sangbad, the Daily Jugantor, Ekushey Teleision, and ATN Bangla, the country’s first satellite television channel. Over his three decades as a journalist, Bulbul has earned a number of awards and honors. Presently he is an Executive Board member of the International Press Institute, member of the Board of Directors of the Open University of Bangladesh, Director of the Press Institute of Bangladesh, and  a member of the Dhaka University SENATE. He is  also an Executive Director of Media Watch (a Bangladeshi organisation defending press freedom) and a part time teacher in the Department of Mass Communication & Journalism at Dhaka University.

Former OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (Hungary)
Mr Haraszti is a writer, journalist, human rights advocate and university professor. He was appointed the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media effective from 10 March 2004. In 1976 he co-founded the Hungarian Democratic Opposition Movement and in 1980 he became editor of the samizdat periodical Beszélő. In 1989, Haraszti participated in the "roundtable" negotiations on transition to free elections. After being member of the Hungarian Parliament from 1990–1994 he moved on to lecture on democratization and media politics at numerous universities. Haraszti's books include "A Worker in a Worker's State" and "The Velvet Prison", both of which have been translated into several languages.

Honarary chairman of the Media Development Center (Bulgaria)
Ognian Zlatev is founder of the Media Development Center in Bulgaria and after managing it for the last 15 years, he is now Honarary chairman of the Center. Graduate of Sofia University, he attained additional qualifications, among others, in political communications, media relations, journalism and media development. Over the years he specialized and is a well-known expert in press freedom, media self-regulation and accountability and NGO development with field work in transitional and post-conflict countries of Western Balkans, Central Asia, Southern Caucasus region, Mongolia, Jordan on behalf of OSCE and UNESCO. Ognian Zlatev is a founding member of the South-East European Network for Professionalization of the Media (SEENPM) where he was president from 2002 to 2004. He served also as a member of the board of the South-East European Media Organization (SEEMO) and member of the Streering Committee of the Global Forum for Media Development.

Editor de la Sección “El País”, Diario Clarín (Argentina)
Mr Santorois the national political editor at Clarin, Argentina's largest newspaper, and has conducted extensive investigations into government corruption, national security matters, and international drug trafficking. Santoro was awarded the 1995 King of Spain International Journalism Award for his "outstanding contribution" to journalism. In addition to his work at Clarin, Santoro teaches investigative journalism at the Universidad de Belgrano in Buenos Aires and has also conducted classes at the Fundacion para un Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano, run by Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia-Marquez in Colombia. In 2000, Santoro published a journalism textbook, Puro Periodismo (Pure Journalism).

Editor-in-Chief, Malaysiakini.com (Malaysia)
Mr Gan is the editor-in-chief of Malaysiakini.com which he co-founded in 1999. Malaysiakini.com is the only full-time independent newspaper in Malaysia which exists only on the Internet. Because of its critical reporting of the ruling government, Malaysiakini.com has continuously been the target of official harassments. Despite this, Malaysiakini.com has continued to thrive with more than 100, 000 readers daily and to do so on a subscription-based business model, a rarity in the newspaper industry. Gan was the recipient of Committee to Protect Journalists International Press Freedom Award in 2000.

Director-General-West Africa Panos Institute (Senegal)
Diane Senghor has been the Director of the Panos Institute of West Africa, an independent international institution, and a member of the Panos Institute Network, based in Dakar. Previously, she was the founder and director of the West Africa Program of the Panos Institute in Paris. Diana Senghor has also been Editor-in-Chief of a number of West African magazines, such as Family and Development, and Living in Another Way, as well as an Assistant in Anthropology at the Cheik Anta Diop University in Dakar. Diana Senghor holds a Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Paris I (Pantheon - Sorbonne), and is the author of numerous articles, as well as the coordinator of different publications.

Investigative reporter (Kenya)

Fatuma Noor is an Investigative Writer with The Star Newspaper in Kenya. She has investigated and reported extensively on the ongoing civil war in Somalia. Fatuma has also done extensive reporting in the East African region. Prior to this she worked as a reporter for Kenya National Agency and as a news correspondent for The Star. Her investigative story on underage refugee girls brothel operating in Nairobi gained her international recognition winning the Forum for African Investigative Reporters Award (FAIR) in 2009. In 2010 she was awarded Features Writer of the Year by Radio Africa Group Limited and David Astor Journalism Fellow the same year. In 2011 she was awarded the CNN print journalist of the year and African Journalist of the year 2011 for her investigative series on recruitment of the Al Shabaab group in Somalia. Fatuma has also worked with some of the worlds leading newspapers in the United Kingdom, the Guardian, The Independent and The Scotsman in Scotland She has a BA in Communication and a Diploma in Mass Communications.

Founder and Executive Director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information

He is founder and executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, the Arab world's leading organization providing original research, legal aid, and technical, networking, and strategic support for the defense of freedom of opinion, expression, and belief. A graduate of `Ain Shams University College of Law, Eid has been lead defense lawyer in many of Egypt's most important human rights cases, and writes and speaks regularly on international human rights and freedom of expression developments. He is also an experienced trainer on human rights research, monitoring, and legal aid, and issues relating to the use of the internet in defense of human rights.

Journalist, Le Nouvel Observateur

She is a French journalist, who worked as a senior reporter until 2006 for the French newspaper Libération, then for the weekly review Le Nouvel Observateur. She was taken hostage on January 5, 2005, in Iraq along with her translator Hussein Hanoun Al-Saadi. In 2009, she has been elected head of the International Observatory on Prisons (OIP).