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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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Kelly Duda: Bad Blood
Kelly Duda originally wrote this piece for Index on Censorship. Kelly Duda is an activist and producer and director of the documentary "Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal". Duda travelled to Italy to offer his services as a prosecution witness in a trial about blood contamination. As a result, he now faces charges himself.…
UK violated journalist’s free speech rights by arresting, charging her under Protection from Harassment Act
The ECtHR has found that the UK violated the right to freedom of expression of a journalist when she was arrested and prosecuted. Rita Pal was charged under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, after she published a news article online and posted several Tweets about an individual who subsequently complained to the police. She…
Strasbourg court’s right to be forgotten decision will impact public interest reporting
In a worrying expansion of the application of the 'right to be forgotten' the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) has decided that a journalist may be held liable for failing or refusing to de-index information published on the Internet. In Biancardi v Italy the applicant, an editor of a newspaper, complained that he…
Media Defence files intervention in ‘Luxleaks’ case at ECtHR Grand Chamber
The 'Luxleaks' case Media Defence has filed a third-party intervention in the case of Halet v Luxembourg (also known as the ‘Luxleaks’ case) at the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The applicant, Mr Halet, was one of two whistle-blowers behind the disclosure of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) internal company documents to a…
UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention urges Viet Nam to immediately and unconditionally release Nguyen Nang Tinh from detention
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) has published an Opinion finding the deprivation of liberty of journalist Nguyen Nang Tinh to be arbitrary and in contravention of international law. Nguyen Nang Tinh was arrested in May 2019 and charged with ‘spreading information, materials and items for the purpose of opposing the State’. In…
César Estrada and the ongoing struggle of indigenous journalists against censorship
Award-winning journalist César Estrada’s ongoing legal battle against censorship recently began a new chapter. In May this year, the Peruvian Supreme Court rejected his writ of cassation against a decision of the lower courts to sentence him to 10 years in prison. His case is emblematic of the struggles many indigenous journalists face throughout Latin…