Robert Balin, Partner, Davis Wright Tremaine, New York, specialises in all aspects of media law including defamation, privacy and news gathering torts. Balin co-chairs his firm’s media practice group and has regularly defended high-profile free speech cases both in the US and abroad.
He was the lead international attorney in the successful defence of Supinya Klangnarong, who was sued for criminal libel by media and telecommunications giant Shin Corp in Thailand.
He also represented Yuen-Ying Chan in her successful defence of criminal libel charges in Taiwan. Balin frequently writes and lectures on international media law issues. His most recent article is Navigating Media Rules in China.
David Goldberg, Director, deeJgee Research/Consultancy, teaches media law at Glasgow Caledonian University; Stirling University and Queen Mary College (London). He co-convenes the Media Law Advocates Training Programme for the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy, Oxford University, and helped found the International Media Lawyers Association. He founded the Journal of Media Law and Practice (now Tottel’s Communications Law). Goldberg co-convenes the Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland, provides UK media law information to the Council of Europe and sits on the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Free Expression Panel as well as on the board of the Legal Human Academy.
Danilo Leonardi was appointed Head of Oxford University’s Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy in September 2006. He is also Coordinator of the International Media Lawyers Association.His main interest is in media law and regulation in societies in transition to the rule of law. Before taking up his position at the University of Oxford in 2001, Leonardi worked in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Edinburgh and Buenos Aires. He was previously Deputy Country Director for European Russia at the Civic Education Project (CEP) in Moscow, and a visiting Lecturer at St. Petersburg State University in the School of Law. Leonardi has been coordinating MLAP – the Media Law Advocates Training Programme – since its inception in 2002. He is one of the founding members of the Legal Human Academy, a group of academics and practitioners interested in innovative methods for teaching law and human rights.
Peter Noorlander is a Senior Legal Officer at ARTICLE 19, a London-based organisation that works around the world to protect and promote the right to freedom of expression.
He joined ARTICLE 19 in 2001, and has represented the organisation at international forums including UNESCO, the Council of Europe and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. He advises governments as well as NGOs on a wide range of freedom of expression-related topics.
Before joining ARTICLE 19, he worked with JUSTICE, the United Kingdom section of the International Commission of Jurists, where he was part of the privacy and criminal policy team.
Mark Stephens, Partner, Finers Stephens Innocent, London, has been described by the Law Society Gazette as “the patron solicitor of previously lost causes.” It is this reputation for creativity with law that leads international publishers and broadcasters to his door.Stephens has created a niche in international comparative media law and regulation. His practice takes him to Asia, the Commonwealth, Europe, Middle East and the USA. He is Chair of the Management Board of the postgraduate Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy, Oxford University, and Chair of the Media Law Committee of the International Bar Association. Groundbreaking human rights cases form the foundation of much of his work.He is regularly asked to litigate privacy, data protection, free speech and public interest issues before domestic and international courts (including the European Court of Human Rights). He also specialises in crisis management.
