Internet Freedom: a constant factor of democratic security in Europe, Strasbourg, 9 September 2016
Biographies
Introduction
Mart Laanemäe
In 2016, Mr. Mart Laanemäe was appointed Ambassador of the Republic of Estonia to the Federal Republic of Germany. Since 2012 he held the position of Undersecretary for Europe and Transatlantic Co-operation, and was also responsible for political affairs in 2013.
He previously was Undersecretary for External Economic Affairs (trade, OECD, development co-operation), also responsible for political affairs, and Ambassador to Germany.
In 2008 Laanemäe was the first head of the Estonian delegation negotiating OECD accession.
He entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Undersecretary at for policy, press and information in 1996.
By education he is a scientist and engineer, graduated Dr.rer.nat. in Chemistry, Stuttgart University and hold a M.A.Sc. in Materials Science, University of Toronto.
Gernot Erler
Dr. h. c. Gernot Erler, former Minister of State at the German Federal Foreign Office, is now Coordinator for Intersocietal Cooperation with Russia, Central Asia and the Eastern Partnership Countries. 2015 he was appointed Special Representative of the Federal Government of Germany for the OSCE Chairmanship in 2016. Erler is a Member of the German Bundestag since 1987. From 1998 to 2005 and from 2009 to 2013 he was Deputy Chairman of the Social Democratic Party’s Parliamentary Group with responsibility for International Affairs, Security Policy, Human Rights and Development Policy. He is also President of the South-East European Association and a member of the German steering committee of the “St. Petersburg Dialogue”.
Gernot Erler’s major political interests are the development of Russia, the CIS and Eastern European countries, South East Europe and the problems on the Balkans, Central Asia and the Caspian region, Peace and security policy, Disarmament and arms control, Global issues as a responsibility of the EU and the United Nations.
Erler, who speaks fluent Russian and English, authored several essays on political science.
High Level Panel
Dunja Mijatović
Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović of Bosnia and Herzegovina took over the post in March 2010. Mijatović was a founder of the Communications Regulatory Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2007 she was elected Chair of the European Platform of Regulatory Agencies. She also chaired the Council of Europe’s Group of Specialists on freedom of expression and information in times of crisis. Mijatović is an expert in human rights; communications and media strategy and regulatory and media policy. She has extensive knowledge of institution-building in transitional states and many years of experience in issues related to journalists’ safety and new media, including digitalization, convergence and the Internet.
Marietje Schaake
Marietje Schaake has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament for the Dutch Democratic Party (D66) with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) political group since 2009. She serves on the International Trade committee, the committee on Foreign Affairs, and the subcommittee on Human Rights. She is the founder of the European Parliament Intergroup on the Digital Agenda for Europe. She is Vice-President of the US Delegation and serves on the Iran Delegation and the Delegation for the Arab peninsula. She is a Member of the Global Commission on Internet Governance and a Young Global Leader with the World Economic Forum.
Robert Spano
Robert Spano is a Judge of the European Court of Human rights elected with respect of Iceland. His term of office began on 1 November 2013. Before being elected, Judge Spano served provisionally as Parliamentary Ombudsman of Iceland and Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Iceland. He was a member of the European Committee on Crime Problems and an Independent Expert to the Lanzarote Committee of the Council of Europe. He also served as Chairman of the Standing Committee of Experts on Criminal Law of the Icelandic Ministry of Justice. Judge Spano is a graduate of Oxford University.
Joseph Cannataci
Joseph Cannataci, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy
Prof. Joe Cannataci was appointed UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy in July 2015.
He is the Head of the Department of Information Policy & Governance at the Faculty of Media & Knowledge Sciences of the University of Malta. He also holds the Chair of European Information Policy & Technology Law within the Faculty of Law at the University of Groningen where he co-founded the STeP Research Group.
An Adjunct Professor at the Security Research Institute and the School of Computer and Security Science at Edith Cowan University Australia, a considerable deal of Joe’s time is dedicated to collaborative research. He was overall co-ordinator for the SMART and RESPECT projects dealing with surveillance and currently also co-ordinates MAPPING dealing with Internet Governance.
A UK Chartered Information Technology Professional & Fellow of the British Computer Society, he also continues to act as Expert Consultant to a number of international organisations.
He has written books and articles on data protection law, liability for expert systems, legal aspects of medical informatics, copyright in computer software and co-authored various papers and textbook chapters on self-regulation and the Internet, the EU Constitution and data protection, on-line dispute resolution, data retention and police data. His latest book “The Individual & Privacy” is published by Ashgate (March 2015).
In 2002 he was decorated by the Republic of France and elevated to “Officier de l’ordre des palmes académiques”. His pioneering role in the development of technology law and especially privacy law was cited as one of the main reasons for his being made the recipient of such an honour as was his contribution to the development of European information policy. He has held or currently holds research grants from the British Academy, the Council of Europe, COST, UNESCO and the European Commission, totaling in excess of Euro 30 million. He serves on the editorial board of six peer-reviewed journals.
Volodymyr Ariev
Volodymyr Ariev, Chairperson of the PACE Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media
Volodymyr Ariev is head of the Ukrainian delegation in Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), PACE Vice-President (2015), PACE general rapporteur for press freedom, and Chairperson of the PACE Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media.
He is also a Member of the Verkhovna Rada (VR, Parliament) of Ukraine from the “Petro Poroshenko Bloc” party, chairman of the subcommittee on inter-parliamentary liaison office, and in charge of bilateral and multilateral relations of the VR’s Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Ariev was born in 1975 in Kyiv. In 1994 he graduated from the school of BBC World Service. In 2002, he graduated from the Journalistic Institute of Kyiv Shevchenko National University. In 1993-2006 he worked as a journalist, TV anchor, film director and author for BBC, Internews, Inter TV channel, Express-Inform and others, and won several journalistic awards.
In 2007 Mr. Ariev was elected to the Verkhovna Rada. He was then re-elected twice – in 2012 and 2014.
2nd panel
Katrin Nyman-Metcalf
Professor Katrin Nyman-Metcalf is Head of the Chair of Law and Technology at Tallinn University of Technology and Head of Research at the Estonian e-Governance Academy. She is furthermore active as an international consultant, working globally primarily in the area of communications law in the wide sense, including ICT regulation, privacy and data protection, media law, e-governance and various cyber issues. Her PhD (Uppsala University, Sweden, 1999) is on the law of outer space and Katrin represents Estonia in the International Relations Committee of the European Space Agency.
Frane Maroevic
Frane Maroevic - Director of the Office of the Representative on Freedom of the Media, previously held the post of Senior Advisor in the Office. He began his career at the OSCE in 2010 as the Deputy Head of Press and Public Information. Before joining the OSCE he was the Director of Communications for the High Representative and EU Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as the Spokesperson for the European Commission in Bosnia and Herzegovina and a journalist with the BBC World Service in London
Oliver Schenk
Oliver is a legal adviser at Germany’s Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM). He is in charge of international media policy and deals with topics such as the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), media aspects in telecommunication policy and free trade agreements. At the Council of Europe, he represents Germany at the Steering Committee on Media and Information Society (CDMSI). He chaired the Council of Europe’s expert committee on Internet freedom (MSI-INT) and the AVMSD task force of the German “Bund-Länder Commission on media convergence”. Before, he coordinated BKM’s e-Government strategy within the Federal Government and worked as a webmaster for Germany’s international broadcaster “Deutsche Welle”. Prior posts include the Permanent Representation of Germany to the EU and the European Commission where he monitored the implementation and application of Union law. He obtained his Master of Laws degree (LL.M.) from University of Cape Town.
Stephen Lowe
Stephen Lowe is Head of the “Equality & Democracy” Team in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s Human Rights and Democracy Department. His responsibilities include freedom of expression, media freedom, human rights defenders, women’s empowerment, LGBT rights, democracy and business and human rights. He has previously served as First Secretary at the British Embassy in Rome, as Head of EU & International Forestry Policy and as International Policy Adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister.
Karmen Turk
Karmen Turk (mag iur) is a litigation attorney at Triniti Law Firm with an expertise in human rights, intellectual property and media law in Estonia and beyond. She has represented clients at the European Court of Human Rights (recently in the case Delfi AS v Estonia) as well as the European Court of Justice.
Furthermore Karmen is a visiting lecturer in IT Law at the University of Tartu for subjects of IP as well as human rights in information society. She is also doing her PhD and researching issues regarding Internet governance and civil liability of different actors on the internet.
She is also an expert in the Council of Europe for several sub-committees (e.g. Co-Chair and expert for Intermediary Liability Committee attached to the Council of Europe). Within the framework of UN Internet Governance Forum, she is co-coordinating the Dynamic Coalition of Freedom of Expression and Media on the Internet.
As an expert, she in involved in European Commission and Council of Europe joint projects in strengthening information society in countries such as Ukraine and Moldova, specifically in training judiciary - for example she was a trainer for human rights and media law for joint program of European Union and Council of Europe in Ukraine for development of human rights law course for the National Academy of Judges.
Carl Frederik Wettermark
Xianhong Hu
Ms Xianhong Hu, the program specialist at Division of Freedom of Expression and Media Development, Communication and Information Sector of UNESCO Headquarter in Paris since 2006. Her main responsibilities are in the areas of freedom of expression online and offline, Internet privacy, media development and Internet governance and she has followed the process of the World Summit of the Information Society (WSIS) and Internet Governance Forum (IGF). She was involved in developing UNESCO Internet Universality framework and the strategic study Keystones to foster inclusive Knowledge Societies: Access to information and knowledge, freedom of expression, privacy and ethics on a global Internet ”.
She managed UNESCO program on promoting online freedom of expression and Internet privacy and conducted Series Publication on Internet Freedom which has captured captured the complex dynamics of global Internet governance and increasing challenge to Internet freedom, by studying a variety of subject including online freedom of expression, privacy, Internet intermediaries, digital safety, etc. She has also conducted UNESCO Series Publication on investigative journalism including “Story-Based Enquiry: A Training Manual for Investigative Journalism” and “Global Casebook of Investigative Journalism”. She received a Ph.D from School of Journalism and Communication at Peking University in China in 2007.
3rd panel
Matthew Shears
Matthew Shears leads the Global Internet Policy and Human Rights Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT).
At CDT, Matthew focusses on Internet policy and governance, cyber-security and human rights. He has represented the organisation at the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) including the high level review meeting in December 2015, and the World Telecommunications Policy Forum (WTPF). He has participated in the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), the Brazil NETmundial meeting and co-chairs a Freedom Online Coalition working group on human rights and cybersecurity. He is also deeply involved in the IANA transition and enhancing ICANN’s accountability.
Prior to CDT, Matthew was the Internet Society's first Public Policy Director, a member of the UN Secretary General's Multi-stakeholder Advisory Group on Internet Governance and has worked for AT&T, Seattle-based broadband satellite start-up Teledesic and Cisco Systems.
A UK national, he received his MSc in European Studies from the London School of Economics and his BA in International Affairs from George Washington University.
Sanja Kelly
Sanja Kelly is the director for Freedom on the Net, Freedom House’s assessment of global internet freedom. In that capacity, she oversees all research, writing, and administrative operations for the project, crafts organizational policy positions on internet freedom, and facilitates Freedom House’s engagement with governments, the private, sector, and international organizations. She has authored and edited numerous articles, reports, and books examining internet freedom, democratic governance, and women’s rights. She regularly briefs NGOs, the private sector, and government agencies on internet freedom trends, and is frequently interviewed by domestic and international media. Her commentary has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Guardian, Al-Jazeera, Fox New, CNN, and other outlets.
Ms. Kelly was appointed by the UN Secretary General in 2012 to serve on the Multistakeholder Advisory Group for the IGF (2012-2014), and also co-chaired the Freedom Online Coalition working group that drafted the Tallinn Agenda in 2014. During her 12-year career, she has also led various international research missions and represented Freedom House at high-level meetings in over 30 countries. In addition, Ms. Kelly has worked extensively on gender issues in the Middle East and North Africa and has produced one the largest studies of women’s rights in the MENA region. A native of Bosnia-Herzegovina, she holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from Columbia University.
Jodie Ginsberg
Jodie Ginsberg joined Index on Censorship from the think-tank, Demos. A former London Bureau Chief for Reuters, Jodie worked for more than a decade as a foreign correspondent and business journalist. She was previously Head of Communications for Camfed, a non-profit organisation working in girls’ education.
Allon Bar
Allon Bar (at Stiftung Neue Verantwortung) is policy and engagement manager of the Ranking Digital Rights project. He previously coordinated Ranking Digital Rights’ research. Before joining Ranking Digital Rights, Mr. Bar implemented the ‘Odyssey’ project, focusing on digital security for vulnerable communities, and wrote policy recommendations for among others the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and civil society organizations. In addition to having worked with NGOs in Indonesia, Kenya, the Netherlands and the United States, he has engaged in international policymaking as a fellow in U.S. Congress and as a policy officer at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As a Fulbright scholar, Mr. Bar obtained a master of international affairs degree, with a focus on human rights, at Columbia University. He further holds a BA degree in Language and Culture Studies and an MA degree in History of International Relations from Utrecht University.
Pauline Adés-Mevel
Ms Adés-Mevel is the head of the EU and Balkan desk at Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and head of the New media desk. Her role is to monitor and inform on the situation of press freedom throughout the geographic zone she is responsible of, in French and English and denounce after having made the necessary checks for each case the violations of press freedom or the offences committed against journalists. Her work is used by the organisation to eventually launch an action.
The new media desk is in charge promoting the freedom of information online and to defend bloggers and net-citizens jailed for exercising it. Ms Adés-Mevel is currently a lecturer at Sciences Po journalism school where she teaches a course to foreign students in their fourth year at Sciences Po.
Before joining RSF in May 2016, she was a TV reporter for Reuters in Paris , covering the news for more than 1000 channels subscribers of Reuters service throughout the world. From 1999 to 2010, she was an editor , commentator and news coordinator for French network Canal Plus and its news subsidiary iTele.
Ms Adés-Mevel started her career in 1995 as a TV reporter for Associated Press Television in Paris and its predecessor ( WTN) as a producer in the field.
Michael Rotert
Prof. Michael Rotert studied business science at the University of Karlsruhe, specialising in OR / informatics. In addition to the professional experience he gained inter alia as the founder and Executive Director of Xlink, one of the first internet access providers in Germany, as Executive Director and Senior Vice-President of KPNQWest, as Executive Director of various different Internet service providers, he has an extensive academic background. Before he started at Xlink, Michael Rotert worked at the University of Karlsruhe. In 1985, he implemented the first Internet connection at a German university. In June 1999, Michael Rotert was awarded the title of Honorary Professor in the field of informatics by the University of Karlsruhe, where he has taught regularly since 1981. Through his work for various national and international bodies, Prof. Rotert is committed to providing intensive support for the success of the Internet in Germany. Since 2000, he has been Chairman of eco (Verband der deutschen Internetwirtschaft e.V.), President (2003-2007) and Vice President (2008-2009) of EuroISPA (European Internet Services Providers Association), and an industrial speaker of the German delegation of the G8 Cybercrime group. He also works as an expert for the EU, the UN and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Yaman Akdeniz
Yaman Akdeniz (LLB, MA, PhD) is a Professor of Law at the Human Rights Law Research Center, Faculty of Law, and the Pro Rector for the Istanbul Bilgi University. Between 2001-2009 Akdeniz was at the School of Law, University of Leeds.
Akdeniz acted as an expert to several international organizations including the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) Office, and the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media with regards to human rights aspects of Internet law and policy. Akdeniz was also appointed to the Council of Europe Committee of Experts on Rights of Internet Users as an 'elected independent expert' (July 2012 - December 2013).
He has written extensively since the mid 1990s and his recent publications include Internet Child Pornography and the Law: National and International Responses (London: Ashgate, 2008); and Racism on the Internet (Council of Europe Publishing, 2010). More recently, Akdeniz authored the Media Freedom on the Internet: An OSCE Guidebook (2016 - http://www.osce.org/netfreedom-guidebook)
Alexandria Walden
Alex Walden works on free expression and human rights at Google. Her work includes representing Google in the Global Network Initiative (GNI) and participating as a member of the Freedom Online Coalition's working group on transparency. Alex joined Google from The Raben Group, where she was a director focused on civil rights, women's rights, criminal justice reform issues, and nominations. Prior to joining TRG, Alex worked at the Center for American Progress. She has also served as a law clerk for the U.S. House of Representatives in the Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights & Liberties and the U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary. Alex also worked with the U.S. EEOC, U.S. Department of Labor, and Bay Area Legal Aid during law school. Before attending law school, Alex spent almost four years working in the D.C. Office of Legal Momentum (formerly NOW Legal Defense & Education Fund). Alex holds a B.A. in political science from American University and a J.D. from University of San Francisco School of Law.
Conclusions
Matthias Kettemann
Matthias C. Kettemann (*1983) studied law in Graz (Mag. iur., Dr. iur.) and Geneva und was Fulbright und Boas Scholar at Harvard Law School (LL.M. 2010). From 2006 to 2013 he was research fellow and lecturer at the Institute of International Law and International Relations where he specialized in the law and politics of the Internet. In October 2013 he received a post-doc fellowship at the Cluster of Excellence „The Formation of Normative Orders” at the University of Frankfurt, Germany, where he works on the normative order of the Internet. His research focuses on the relationship of stakeholders in the development of normative standards for the Internet, in particular the role of intermediaries, in light of international law, national law and European law.
Dr. Kettemann has acted as an expert for the Council of Europe a number of occasions. In 2013 he and Professor Benedek were asked to write a book on freedom of expression and the Internet by the Council of Europe, which has been published in English (2014) and French (2015). Dr. Kettemann was also co-chair of the Internet Rights & Principles Coalition and has acted as expert for the European Parliament and the Fundamental Rights Agency. He is an affiliate of the Network of Excellence in Internet Science und national expert of the Internet & Jurisdiction Observatory. In 2014 he was elected by the global academia as one of their representatives in the Executive Committee of the Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of the Internet. In 2016, Dr. Kettemann was appointed independent expert in the Council of Europe Committee of Experts on Internet Intermediaries
Philippe Boillat
Philippe Boillat was born on 31 July 1952 in Switzerland. He holds a Master in Law from the University of Lausanne.
He started his legal career in 1978 at the Federal Ministry of Justice in Bern. Between 1997 and October 2005, he was Deputy Director of the Federal Ministry of Justice, Head of International Affairs Department and the Swiss Government Agent to the European Court of Human Rights and UN Committee against torture.
He has been Chairperson of several major intergovernmental Committees:
- the Human Rights Committee for the Protection of National Minorities,
- the Ad Hoc Committee for the Protection of National Minorities,
- the European Committee responsible for drawing-up “Guidelines on Human Rights and the fight against terrorism” and “Guidelines on the protection of victims of terrorist acts”,
- the Group which drew up Protocol No.14 amending the European Convention on Human Rights and the Steering Committee for Human Rights.
In May 2006, he was appointed Director General of Human Rights in the Council of Europe, and since May 2007, Director General of the Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law.
Philippe Boillat has published several feature articles in the legal and human rights sectors.
Sebastian Gerhardt
Dr. Sebastian Gerhardt is Team Coordinator of the Task Force for the German OSCE Chairmanship 2016. From 2012 to 2015, he was working in the Security Policy Division of the Federal Foreign Office. Previously, he held posts in the political departments of the German Embassy in Moscow and Prague as well as in the Political Department of the Federal Foreign Office, being in charge of Ukrainian affairs.