Mr. Mohammad Yacoub Abdullah
Researcher
Higher Media Council
Country: Jordan• Citizenship: Jordan
Mr. Yacoub has worked as a researcher for Jordan’s Higher Media Council, the agency responsible for the development of Jordan’s media sector, since 2004.Mr. Yacoub has also been involved in private research projects that have led to book and journal publications.The Humanitarian Intervention In International Relations (United Arab Emirates: Abu Dhabi, The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies, 2005) was honored with first prize by Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS). He is currently conducting research on democracy and Islam, the Islamic Brotherhood in Jordan, and academic freedom in Jordanian universities; other academic interests include Arab and Islamic political thought, democracy and human rights.He also serves as editorial secretary for a journal of political studies.
Mr. Yacoub holds a Master Degree in Political Science/International Relations from the University of Jordan and a BA in Political Science, with a Minor in Mass Communication, from YarmoukUniversity.
Solomon Amare
Audience Research Executive
BBC World Trust
Country: Ethiopia• Citizenship: Ethiopia
As Audience Research Executive for the BBC World Trust, Mr. Amare is responsible for executing formative research and impact evaluations of the Trust’s Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) media campaign, addressing issues of gender-based violence, sex and sexuality, HIV and AIDS. In addition, Mr. Amare assists the radio production team in developing programme content and evaluating the impact of the programme on the target audience, and helps to coordinate weekly listening clubs which debate various SRH issues.He is currently reviewing the draft proclamation on broadcasting service in Ethiopia.Mr. Amare holds an MA in Curriculum and Instruction, an MA in TEFL, and a BA in English from AddisAbbabaUniversity, and has worked as an English instructor and lecturer at various Ethiopian universities.
Linda Austere
Researcher
Centre for Public Policy PROVIDUS
Country: Hungary• Citizenship: Latvia
Ms. Austere’s primary research interest in media policy centers on the management, dissemination and use of public sector information (PSI). She is currently completing an MA in Public Policy (Media, Communications and Telecommunications Stream) from CentralEuropeanUniversity in Budapest, and is working as a researcher for the Centre for Public Policy PROVIDUS in Riga, Latvia. She has presented publications for the Centre for Public Policy PROVIDUS at the 2005 and 2006 First Semiannum, including The Tide of Access to Information. In Expectation of the Ebb?Report on Corruption and Anti Corruption Policy in Latvia (2006 First Semiannum) and Election Campaign Expenditure Limits – the Baptism of Fire Report on Corruption and Anti Corruption Policy in Latvia (2005 First Semiannum). Ms. Austere holds a BA in Law from the University of Latvia, and participated in the 2004 Oxford Media Lawyers Advocacy Program. From 2002 – 2004, Ms. Austere worked as a project coordinator and researcher at Transparency International in Latvia.
Katie Brown
PhD Candidate, Communication Studies
University of Michigan
Country: United States• Citizenship: United States
Ms. Brown recently completed her first year as a doctoral student in the Communication Studies department at the University of Michigan. Her interest in comparative media emerged during her undergraduate studies at RiceUniversity and WesleyanUniversity, where she compared Canadian and American teen dramas for a television course in the anthropology department of Wesleyan. At the University of Michigan, she has continued her work on comparative media studies with a first-year project studying terrorism media in the United States and Great Britain. Focusing on broadcast news coverage, she is comparing the news narratives used in domestic and foreign disasters via textual analysis.
SkyCanaves
M.J.candidate
University of Hong Kong Journalism and Media Studies Centre
Country: Hong Kong • Citizenship: United States
Ms. Canaves is an MJ candidate at the University of Hong Kong Journalism and Media Studies Centre, where she is completing a Master’s Projecton China’sindependent documentary filmmakers. Ms. Canaves haswritten for theFinancial Times and Bloomberg News in Hong Kong and previously worked for the law firm of Baker & McKenzie in Hong Kong and the United States. She holds a JD from StanfordLawSchool, where she participated in the Center for Internet and Society’s Cyberlaw Clinic, researching and drafting briefs challenging the constitutionality of Congressional expansion of copyright power. Ms. Canaves is particularly interested in new media technologies and how they test the limits of existing law related to freedom of expression, access to information and copyrights.
Brooke Erin Duffy
PhD Candidate, Communication
AnnenbergSchool, University of Pennsylvania
Country: United States• Citizenship: United States
Ms. Duffy recently completed her first year as a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania’s AnnenbergSchool. Her interests lie at the intersection of media, marketing, and society, and include the role of technology in shaping contemporary social institutions and the role of national identity in a global era characterized by new patterns of information flow. In November 2006, she presented a paper on “Pushing Time Ahead: An Exploratory Study of Time Construction in Women’s Magazines” at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association. She presented this paper, as well as “The Apprentice in Cyberspace: Exploring the Tension Between Individual and Collective Identities in a New Media Environment” at the annual meeting of the Eastern Communication Association in April 2007. Ms. Duffy completed her undergraduate studies atPennState, with aB.A. in advertising and a minor in business.
Monica Duran Ruiz
Lawyer
Catalonia Broadcasting Council
Country: Spain• Citizenship: Spain
As a lawyer for the Catalan Broadcasting Council, Ms. Duran advises and writes reports on Catalan and Spanish broadcasting legislation, including regulations on audiovisual programming and advertising, new technologies and media, the respect of fundamental rights and civil liberties, and compliance with European regulations and international treaties on these matters.Last year, she collaborated on the 2005 annual audiovisual report of Catalonia and helped draw up the guidelines to develop some precepts of the Catalonia Broadcasting Law with regard to the obligations of providers and distributors of broadcasting services.
Adil Elbaz
Editor-in-Chief
Alsahafa Daily
Country: Sudan• Citizenship: Sudan
Mr. Elbaz is a journalist who currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Alsahafa Daily in Khartoum, Sudan. Before joining Alsahafa, he served as Editorial Adviser and Editorial Manager at Al-Sahafi Al-Duwali Daily. In 2005, he completed a fellowship in journalism at the London School of Economics. He is interested in studying the way information policies are formulated and how information laws and policies can protect reporters. He hopes this experience will inform his involvement with the changing journalism laws in the Sudan, including a new law drafted in the aftermath of an interim constitution passed after thepeace agreement signed between north and south Sudan.
Mr. Yusuf Abdi Gabobe
Chairman
Haatuf Media Network
Country: Somaliland• Citizenship: Somalialander
Mr. Gabobe is from Hargeisa, Somaliland. He is currently Chairman of Haatuf Media Network, which publishes the English weekly “Somaliland Times,” the Arabic weekly “Al-Haatuf Al-Arabi” and the Somali daily “Haatuf.” While Yusuf serves as the Editor-in-Chief of these publications, he regularly contributes editorial articles analyzing local and international affairs to all three papers. He is a prolific journalist and has produced a substantial body of work covering issues such as terrorism in Somaliland (including the role of al-Qaeda and Islamic fundamentalism), local strategies for securing international recognition of Somaliland and the international community’s approach to security and stability in the region.
Mr. Muhammad Imran Gill
Broadcasting Engineer
Telecommunications Regulatory Authority UAE
Country: United Arab Emirates • Citizenship: Pakistan
Mr. Gill graduated from the University of Engineering and Technology in Pakistan with a degree in Electronic Engineering. For the last five years, he has participated in telecom policy initiatives including planning analog and digital broadcasting services and spectrum management in the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan; assisting in handling broadcast licensing issues; working on preparing National Policy for Broadcasting and Content Distribution Services and policies relating to the frequency allocations and assignments.
Mr. Movses Hakobyan
Legal Consultant
Internews Center for Information Law and Policy
Country: Armenia • Citizenship: Armenia
Mr. Hakobyan graduated from the AmericanUniversity of Armenia with a Law degree in 2005. He has been a legal consultant for “GINO” Ltd, a juridical service. Currently, Mr. Movses Hakobyan is working for the Center for Information Law and Policy founded by Internews Media Support NGO. As a legal consultant, Mr. Hakobyan is responsible for drafting a concept paper on “Legal Regulation of Digital Broadcasting in Armenia” in response to a governmental draft plan. He is also a member of the Media Legislation Working Group, chaired by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which closely follows the state of media freedom and developments in media legislation in Armenia. During the Institute, Mr. Hakobyan is hoping to learn more regarding the comparative regulation of new digital technologies, particularly in DTV, IPTV and IP Telephony.
Mr. Ayman Halaseh
Law Professor
Al IsraPrivateUniversity
Country: Jordan• Citizenship: Jordan
Mr. Halaseh is Head of the Public Law Department and Assistant Professor in Law at Al-IsraPrivateUniversity in Amman, Jordan. He teaches International Public Law, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law and Legal Terminology in English to undergraduate students, and a course on International Public Law for the Masters program. He also works as a lawyer, with a specialty in administrative law. Mr. Halaseh’s recent publications include “Internal Flight Alternative in International Refugee Law” (Derasat Journal, University of Jordan), “The Legal Status of Non-Palestinian Refugees in Jordan” (Mutta Journal for Legal Research, Mutta University), and “The International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination, An Overview,” (Al-Resala Journal, No. 7, The National Centre of Human Rights, October 2006).
Mr. Halaseh holds a PhD in Public International Law from the University of Cairo and a Masters and BA in Law from the University of Jordan.
YingLei
PaulAielloResearchFellow
University of Cambridge
Country: United Kingdom • Citizenship: China
Ms. Lei is the Paul Aiello Research Fellow in Development Studies and the Jesus College Research Associate at theUniversity of Cambridge. In these positions, she researches media and cultural industries in a global context, She also serves as program coordinator for the China Executive Leadership Program, a program undertaken in partnership between Cambridge China Development Trust in the University of Cambridge and China Development Research Foundation under the China State Council.
Ms. Lei has been researching the media industry since 2000. Her research interests include media and culture, the public sphere, cross-cultural competition, the global value chain and the interaction between Chinese and global firms in the epoch of the global business revolution. For her PhD in Management Studies from the JudgeBusinessSchool at University of Cambridge, she completed a thesis entitled Cross-Culture Competition in Media Industry: the Case of China, which she plans to publish as a book. She received her M.A in Creative and Media Enterprises from University of Warwick.
Dr. Li Jidong
Teacher, Department of International Communication
BeijingInternationalStudiesUniversity
Country: China• Citizenship: China
Dr. Li graduated with a BA in Chinese language and literature and an MA in Chinese classical literature from Inner MongoliaUniversity. In 2006, he completed a PhD thesis entitled, “Study of the Public Service Broadcasting Policy Change and its Problems in the UK,” for the School of Journalism and Communication at the Communication University of China inBeijing. He currently teaches inBeijingInternationalStudiesUniversity’s Department of International Communication. Before this, Dr. Liworked as aneditor and manager in the marketing department at the Inner Mongolia University Press. Dr. Li has carried out research on China’s Public Service Broadcasting for the Ministry of Education in order to encourage reforms in this sector. His main areas of interest include: media policy and institution transition, the political economy of communication, international communication and new media and press.
Mr. Julien Mailland
General Counsel
MFEX Mutual Funds Exchange
Country: France • Citizenship: France
Mr. Mailland has been working as an attorney, in particular as corporate counsel for two internet firms since receiving his LL.M. from New YorkUniversity in 2000. His interest in communications law pertains especially to journalism and publishing, civil liberties and free speech, comparative law, technology, anthropology and political science. While at NYU, Mr. Mailland researched Internet regulation in general, and information distribution and content regulation in particular. His primary research interest is to analyze how technology and technology regulation will affect information distribution and freedom of speech on both a global and local level and how they will affect personal jurisdiction models. On the topic, he has published Freedom of Speech, the Internet, and the Costs of Control: The French Example, 33 New York UniversityJournal of International Law & Politics 1179 (2001). In addition to the LL.M., he holds a Master of Comparative Jurisprudence from the University of Paris II (Panthéon-Assas) and is an alumnus of the University of California, Berkeley.
Mr. Khurram Ali Mehran
Acting Director, Public Relations & Media
Pakistan Telecommunications Authority
Country: Pakistan• Citizenship: Pakistan
Mr. Mehran is currently the Acting Director for Public Relations & Media at the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority. He is pursuing a PhD with the Department of Mass Communication at the University of the Punjab in Lahore. His thesis is entitled “Role of Television in Behavioral Change: A Case Study of Rural Pakistan.” He has an MPhil in Mass Communications from University of the Punjab and a Masters in Mass Communications from IslamiaUniversity. He was previously a programme producer with the Pakistan Broadcasting Coporation and an editor and reporter with several papers in Lahore and Islamabad. He has also served as Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication at Allama Iqbal Open University and at National University of Modern Languages (NUML).
Ms. Cory Mescon
JD Student
BenjaminN.CardozoSchool of Law
Country: United States• Citizenship: United States
Ms. Mescon is a JD candidate at the Cardozo School of Law in New York City. While at Cardozo, she has worked as a volunteer advocate with Cardozo’s Courtroom Advocate Program, and she is spending the summer interning with Federal Magistrate Judge Theodore H. Katz in the Southern District of New York. Before law school, she worked as a paralegal with the New York City Department of Education, where she served as regional records officer for requests related to the Freedom of Information Law. She has also served as a volunteer with Cardozo Youth Advocates and is involved with the Public Interest Law Students Association.
Ms. Jade Miller
PhD Student, Communication
University of Southern California, AnnenbergSchool for Communication
Country: United States• Citizenship: United States
Ms. Miller is a third-year PhD student in Communication at the AnnenbergSchool for Communication at USC. Her interest in media policy centers on the desire to understand drivers that spur media and entertainment industries, particularly in developing countries. Her work has included studies of information and communication technology for development, the discourse of “creative industries”—the idea that creativity, both in terms of technological innovation and cultural production, is now a driver of economic growth, and must be directly encouraged by government policy—and industry-level cultural protectionism.
Ms. Lauren Movius
PhD Student
University of Southern California, AnnenbergSchool for Communication
Country: United States• Citizenship: United States and Ireland
Ms. Movius is a third-year PhD student at USC’s AnnenbergSchool for Communication. Her central interest is regulation of the Internet, and she plans to pursue research on the attendant transformation of government policies and communication patterns as well as the social and economic consequences of these changes. Ms. Movius ultimately hopes to work as a teacher and researcher, and looks forward to engaging with academics and practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds and international perspectives at Oxford.
Ms. Movius holds an MA in Global Communications from USC, and an MSc in Global Media and Communications from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Mr. Patrice Mulama
Executive Secretary
High Council of the Press
Country: Rwanda• Citizenship: Rwanda
Mr. Mulama is currently Executive Secretary for Rwanda’s High Council of the Press. His responsibilities in the Council include coordinating all activities of the High Council of the Press including monitoring respect of the media law and the professional code of ethics in journalism and ensuring that the media effectively plays its watchdog role and promotes accountability and good governance. He is currently pursuing an MSc in Public Policy and Management at the University of London. He has a BA in Political Science from MakerereUniversity. Previously he was a Student Researcher at the Uganda Women’s Network (UWONET). His interest is how to effectively regulate electronic media to protect society’s cultures, while enabling the free flow of information and ideas, accommodating positive foreign values and facilitating technological transfers to achieve social economic development.
Ms. Mei (Molly) Nie
Director of President’s Office
Hunan Radio, Film and Television Bureau
Country: China • Citizenship: China
As director of the President’s Office of the Hunan Administration of Radio, Film and Television, Ms. Nie is in charge of internal management and also handles coordination with different state government departments such as the central propaganda department, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) and the Cultural Department. She is also the Director of the Strategic Development and Reform Department of the Hunan Broadcasting Media Group (Golden Eagle Broadcasting), where she provides policy and practical advice for the Group’s development and overseas expansion. Ms. Nie earned practical experience in the field of television production as Vice Channel Controller of Hunan Economic Television Station, where she produced numerous television programs.
Mr. Samuel Lamoglia Possebon
Journalist,TELETIME Magazine
Researcher, Laboratory of Communications Policies / UnB (Lapcom/UnB)