Media Defence provides legal help to journalists, citizen journalists and independent media across the world.

What We Do

Emergency Defence

We fund legal defence for journalists and independent media across the world.

Strategic Litigation

We take on strategic cases to promote and improve media freedom.

Capacity Building

We build local legal capacity to defend journalists through legal training and by funding local legal centres to defend journalists.

Reports and Events

Large legal scales swaying, on one side an imprisoned journalist on the other free journalists protesting and photographing.

Watch our Webinar: From Judgments to Justice: Human Rights Bodies vs. Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists

Annual Report 2024

Launching our 2024 Annual Report

strategy

Launching our 2025-2029 Strategy

Latest Articles

The European Court of Human Rights building in Strasbourg, France, featuring two large cylindrical towers with metallic facades and a central glass entrance under a clear blue sky.

Media Defence Files 2 Amicus Briefs at the European Court of Human Rights addressing the dangers of SLAPPs

Media Defence has filed written submissions as a third-party intervener in two separate cases currently before the European Court of

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Guatemalan Journalist José Rubén Zamora Released to House Arrest After More than Three Years in Arbitrary Detention 

Guatemalan investigative journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, founder of the now-defunct independent newspaper el Periódico, was released to house arrest

Case Challenging Impunity in the Killing of Journalist Léo Veras Reaches the IACHR Six Years After His Death

On the sixth anniversary of the killing of Brazilian journalist Lourenço “Léo” Veras, the Institute for Environmental Law and Economics

Seis años después del asesinato del periodista Léo Veras, su caso llega a la CIDH ante la falta de justicia

En el sexto aniversario del asesinato del periodista brasileño Lourenço “Léo” Veras, el Instituto de Derecho y Economía Ambiental (IDEA)

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French Court of Appeal Dismisses Surgeon’s Defamation Lawsuit Against Marsactu and Mediapart

Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal dismissed surgeon Michel Assor’s defamation lawsuit against Marsactu's article published in 2024.
Khadija Ismayilova

Khadija Ismayilova Secures Win against Azerbaijan at European Court

The European Court of Human Rights has found that the criminal conviction of Khadija Ismayilova, a renowned Azeri journalist and

A free press is essential for the protection of human rights.