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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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UN body finds Cameroon journalist unlawfully detained and tortured
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) has published an Opinion holding Cameroon responsible for unlawfully detaining prominent investigative journalist and blogger Tsi Conrad. On 8 December 2016, Mr Conrad was arrested in Bamenda while filming a protest held by the ruling political party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM). He was arrested at…
Digital Rights Advocates: Interview with Gosego Rockfall Lekgowe
Introducting Gosego Rockfall Lekgowe Gosego Rockfall Lekgowe met Media Defence through a client and journalist whom he was assisting with a defamation case. He attended the Southern Africa litigation surgery in 2019, and since then has continued to collaborate by attending the Internet Governance Forum, and our recent peer to peer learning event for lawyers…
Craig Newmark Philanthropies renews its support
We are delighted to announce that Craig Newmark Philanthropies has presented us with an award of $200,000. Thanks to this grant, we will be able to support even more journalists, citizen journalists and media outlets around the world. Moreover, it will enable us to continue challenging those laws that are exploited to supress freedom of…
We are recruiting for a Trustee
The Board of Trustees is jointly and severally responsible for the overall governance and strategic direction of Media Defence, and for its financial health. It is the responsibility of the trustees to further the organisation whilst keeping within its charitable objectives. To supplement the range of skills and knowledge already present amongst its Board, Media…
Court acquits Concita de Gregorio and Marco Travaglio
Court acquits Italian journalists sued by former Prime Minister’s outlet Italian journalists Concita de Gregorio and Marco Travaglio were both writing for the newspaper L'Unita back in 2008. That was the year that Mediaset, the news company owned by then Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, sued them for criminal defamation. In May of this year they…
HRNJ-Uganda: challenging violence against journalists
We supported the Uganda-based Human Rights Network of Journalists (HRNJ-Uganda) between 2013 - 2015, and then again in 2018. Our support was primarily financial, with grants to support their work in defending media freedom through litigation. Consequently, we have asked HRNJ-Uganda to complete a Most Significant Change evaluation. These evaluations help us to understand the…