Michael Fowler is senior resident journalism advisor for Internews Network and he is also a professor of law, ethics and journalism with international consulting and training experience in media law reform and journalism professionalism. He has conducted media law reform and journalism training in Cambodia, Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Rwanda, Thailand. He is a two-time Knight International Press Fellow, in Cambodia and India. He served on the Miami ACLU legal panel screening and investigating complaints; handled free speech cases. He was on the Faculty of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, at University of Miami for five years.
Abdul Samad bin Abdul Ghani, Samad is currently teaching the Media Law for LLM Programme at the University of Malaya. He is also completing a PhD thesis titled, “The Governance of Cyberspace and the Protection of Privacy in Malaysia” at the University of Leeds. He holds an LLM from the University of Wales and an LLB from the University of Liverpool.
Zalina Abdul Halim graduated with an LLB degree from the University of Malaya (1993). She obtained her LLM from the University of Melbourne specialising in Media Law. From 1997-2002 she lectured for the Faculty Law, University of Malaya and taught Criminal, Land and Media Law. She is now working on her PhD thesis on “The Right to Know in Malaysia”, a comparative and multidisciplinary legal study at the University of Manchester.
Rosalinda V. Kabatay has been a member of the Faculty of the School of Communication of the University of Asia & the Pacific (UA&P) since 1998, teaching Media Law, Media Ethics and Communication and Society. Before joining the academe, she was a corporate lawyer for eight years until she joined the Information and Publication Division of the University of the Philippines Law Center where she stayed for three years until she joined UA&P.
Her latest publication, Mass Media Laws & Regulations in the Philippines 3rd (updated) edition (2006), [ published by the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) and the Center for Research and Communication Foundation, Inc.(CRCFI), 2nd edition (2001) and 1st edition (1998)] which she co-authored with Luis V. Teodoro former Dean of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication (UPCMC) incorporates much of her masteral thesis A Study of the Prevailing Law and Jurisprudence on the Philippine Mass Media and Its Historical Background which was chosen as the Best Thesis by the UPCMC in 1997.
Her degrees include a Master of Arts in Communication (1997) from the UPCMC, a Bachelor of Laws (1981) from the College of Law, University of the Philippines, and a Bachelor of Arts, Major in International Studies (1975) from Maryknoll College in the Philippines. She is a member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and of the American Field Service (AFS) Returnees Foundation of the Philippines.
Dr Morris Lipson is currently Director of the Sigrid Rausing Trust, where he directs granting to groups working across the human rights spectrum. He began his career as a professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and later the University of California at Berkeley, before taking a degree in law at the Yale Law School. His first work as a practicing human rights lawyer was with the American Civil Liberties Union, where he litigated human rights cases before federal trial and appellate courts. In 2000, he began a series of consultancies with UnitedNations bodies in Geneva, including the International Labour Organisation and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. He then joined Article 19, an international NGO, where he developed a freedom of expression practice, including litigating cases before the UN Human Rights Committee. In 2004, he joined the Network Media Programme of the
Open Society Foundation, where he directed the Programme’s legal activities, developed numerous projects, and worked with grantees throughout the world.
Anggara Suwahju, Project Officer, Advocacy Division, The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Indonesia received his law degree in University of Padjadjaran Law School in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. His work experience started at Bandung Legal Aid Institute (LBH Bandung), a prominent legal aid organization in West Java Indonesia, a branch office of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), as a Public Defender and also a Senior Program Officer. After served for more than three years in LBH Bandung, he was joined the PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya (Alfamart) in Bogor as Industrial Relation Officer for very short time. Actively writing in his owns blog, also an author for numerous publications publish by several non governmental organizations in Indonesia and in a prominent legal web site, hukumonline.
Sinfah Tunsarawuth, Legal Coordinator, Internews Network. Sinfah works with Thailand’s stakeholders on media law advocacy to help strengthen media law teaching at Thai universities’ mass communication schools. He is also involved with the setting up of a Thai Media Policy & Advocacy Center (Thai MPAC) at Chulalongkorn Univeristy in Bangkok, which includes media law advocacy as a main component of its activities. In 1987, Sinfah was the inaugural winner of the Neil Davis-Bill Latch Memorial Award organised by the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand and its affiliate press associations in Asia for journalists in the region. He has Bachelor of Laws from a Ramkhamhaeng University.
Maureen Aung-Thwin , Director, Burma Project/Southeast Asia Initiative, NY
Stewart Chisholm , Senior Program Manager, Network Media Program, UK
Sandra Coliver, Senior Legal Officer, Open Society Justice Initiative , NY
Gordana Jankovic , Director, Network Media Program, UK
Abigail Schwartz , Program Officer, Burma Project/Southeast Asia Initiative , NY
