Speakers' biographies: Session 2 - Flash sessions
Towards a Human Rights compliant AI regulation - Mr Gregor Strojin, Chair of the Council of Europe ad hoc committee on artificial intelligence (CAHAI)
Gregor Strojin
AI in the audiovisual sector in light of the latest market and legal developments - Ms Susanne Nikoltchev, Executive Director, European Audiovisual Observatory
Susan Nikoltchev
Susan Nikoltchev Dr Susanne Nikoltchev took office as Executive Director of the European Audiovisual Observatory in July 2013.
Prior thereto she was the Observatory's Head of Department for Legal Information and editor in chief of all its legal publications (since 1998). She has been a media, telecoms, international trade and EU competition lawyer associated with the American law firm of Covington & Burling (1995-1998). As a member of the bars of Germany and Washington D.C., she has worked in private practice in Germany, the United States and Belgium with particular exposure to audio-visual issues on the international and European level as well as on the national level.
She obtained her first law degree from the University of Heidelberg in 1988, followed by master’s degrees from the European University Institute in Florence (LL.M. in European and Comparative law, 1989) and the University of Michigan (LL.M. in US law, 1994) and her doctorate in law (comparative legal studies, thesis published in 1997) from the University of Trier (1996). She passed the second German state examination in law in Baden-Württemberg (1993) with distinction.
The role and responsibilities of states and internet platforms
Natali Helberger
Ms Natali Helberger, is Distinguished University Professor of Law and Digital Technology, with a special focus on AI at the University of Amsterdam, and elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW). Her research over the past 5 years has concentrated on questions of how AI and ADM transform society, and the implications this has for law and governance. In pursuit of these questions, she is one of the co-founders of the Research Priority Areas Information, Communication, and the Data Society (https://www.uva-icds.net) and Human(e) AI, two hubs for researchers from the social sciences, humanities and computer sciences to develop a societal perspective on AI. As one of the four AI University Professors at the UvA, member of the Dutch National AI Coalition, the VSNU AI Expert Table and track leader in the national Digital Society Initiative, Helberger plays an active role in shaping the conditions for AI research in the Netherlands.
At the international level, Helberger is, among others, Chair of the Council of Europe Expert Group on AI and Freedom of Expression (MSI-DIG), member of the Swiss National Research Programmes (NRP) ‘Digital Transformation’ and an Advisory Board Member of the Reuters Institute for Journalism, Oxford. Based on her research, she has advised, among others, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, the OECD, UNESCO, the Dutch Parliament and national governments and regulatory authorities.
Challenges for the media in the digital age
Maria Donde
Ms Maria Donde Maria works for the UK Office of Communications (Ofcom) as the Head of International Content Policy, covering media, content and broadcasting issues. She leads on Ofcom’s engagement with other European media regulators, most particularly through EPRA (where is currently a Vice-Chair) as well as international bodies, and represents Ofcom on the full range of media policy questions including media literacy. She oversaw Ofcom’s input into the negotiations on the AVMS Directive and oversees Ofcom's relationship with European and global institutions on questions of media and content policy. She was recently elected as Chair of the Council of Europe Committee of Experts on Media Environment and Reform.
Her regulatory background is in advertising, having spent four years at the Advertising Standards Authority before joining Ofcom’s Broadcasting Standards department. Prior to that, she worked in media analysis, and before that as a radio producer for the BBC World Service. She has a Modern Languages degree from Cambridge University and a Masters degree in Literary Translation.