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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.
What’s new
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Media Defence Partners with GIJN Advisory Services to Provide Free Legal Defence
The partnership The Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) has now launched its Advisory Services microsite. This microsite builds on the network’s existing work, offering a range of resources and services to better support watchdog journalists. As part of the project, we’ll be providing legal defence to selected watchdog media organisations in partnership with GIJN. We…
Gulnara Mehdiyeva: Championing LGBTI and Women’s Rights in Azerbaijan
Media Defence has filed an application to the European Court on behalf of Gulnara Mehdiyeva. To read the blog summarising the case, click here. The Azeri campaign against journalists The context in which Gulnara Mehdiyeva works is a difficult one. Azerbaijan is one of the most restrictive environments for freedom of expression in the world.…
Italian Journalist Acquitted of Aggravated Defamation
Criminal Court in Lecce acquits journalist in case supported by Media Defence’s partner Ossigeno per L’Informazione A Lecce court has acquitted the journalist and editor in chief of the online newspaper Il Tacco d’Italia, Marilú Mastrogiovanni, of charges of aggravated defamation. Three individuals, including a former mayor and a former council member of Salento, brought…
Media Defence Launches the Training Resource Hub
Media Defence is excited to launch its new Training Resource Hub! Through this new Hub, we've collated all our training materials into one easy-to-use site. We've designed it for lawyers interested in litigating digital rights cases, but who may not have experience doing so. Other legal professionals and law students may also find it useful.…
Media Defence Supports Legal Defence of Cameroonian Journalist in Multiple Lawsuits Filed by International Timber Company
Media Defence is supporting Nestor Nga Etoga, an investigative journalist in Cameroon. An international timber company has filed multiple lawsuits filed against Mr Nga Etoga, after he published what he alleged was evidence of its various unlawful practices. Mr Nga Etoga, a freelance reporter, published his findings on an online news website in 2016. In…
Media Defence Files Application to the European Court on behalf of LGBTI/Women’s Rights Activist, Gulnara Mehdiyeva, Subject to Serious Cyberattack
Summary Media Defence has filed an application to the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of Gulnara Mehdiyeva, an activist and journalist reporting on LGBTI and women’s rights issues in Azerbaijan. Ms Mehdiyeva was subject to a serious cyberattack, in which a hacker gained access to her email and social media accounts, after she…