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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.

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What’s new

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We’re recruiting: Legal Officer

About Media Defence Media Defence is a charity that helps media to defend their rights. We support independent media, journalists and citizen journalists who are under legal threat by making sure that lawyers are available to defend them. We engage in strategic litigation to improve the regulatory environment for media freedom, make grants to organisations…

Les lois sur les “fake news” sont-elles le meilleur moyen de lutter contre la désinformation?

En décembre 2021, la Grèce a rejoint la liste croissante des pays qui légifèrent contre les "fausses nouvelles" (ou « fake news » en anglais). La modification du code pénal vise à poursuivre les citoyens grecs qui diffusent de fausses informations pendant la pandémie de COVID-19. Tout citoyen diffusant de fausses informations sur la santé publique risque…

Our Journalist Impact Survey 2022

“If i didn’t have Media Defence’s support, I would have been condemned .” - Journalist supported by Media Defence in 2022. In 2022, we carried out our sixth annual Journalist Impact Survey to look at the longer-term impact of our support to journalists. We designed our Journalist Impact Survey to understand the quality of our…

International Women’s Day: Digital Rights Advocate Gladys Mbuyah

Gladys Mbuyah is a barrister and renowned human rights activist working in Cameroon. She has been part of Media Defence’s network for several years, having attended our digital rights litigation surgeries. She is currently part of our peer support programme for women lawyers in sub-Saharan Africa. President of the Cameroon Bar Association Social Affairs Commission,…

15 Years of Media Defence: Unwavering focus on legal support for journalists

15 years ago, Media Defence was established. To celebrate our 15th anniversary, we highlight some developments in freedom of expression over the past 15 years of our work. This piece is written by Bob Jobbins, who was the Chair of our Board of Trustees for 8 years, between 2013 - 2021. Previously, Bob Jobbins worked…

Media Defence Announces Carlos Gaio as New Chief Executive Officer

Media Defence is pleased to announce Carlos Gaio as its new Chief Executive Officer. Carlos has worked in the Legal Team at Media Defence since 2020 and is stepping in as CEO on 1st March 2023, replacing Alinda Vermeer. Prior to joining the organisation, Carlos worked for ten years as a senior lawyer at the…

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