Claudia Schergna
Claudia joined Media Defence as Communications Assistant in 2025.
Jessica Stevens
Jess joined Media Defence 2024. She will be responsible for the logistics of our international events and assisting with organisation-wide operations. She previously had a career in TV, working on international productions for companies including Amazon, MGM and BT Sport.
Aicha Omar
Aicha joined Media Defence in November 2024 as Finance and Operations Officer. Prior to Media Defence, Aicha has worked in finance for 8 years with 6 years of experience within the charity sector.
Emese Kovacs
Nyasha Borges Da Silva
Nyasha Borges Da Silva joined Media Defence as a Grants Officer in 2024. She brings a varied background in media freedom, advocacy, and poverty alleviation, with experience from organisations such as the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, Rory Peck Trust, and African Child Trust. Nyasha holds an MSc in African Politics from SOAS and is deeply committed to […]
Suzanne Clark
Suzanne joined Media Defence in 2025 as the Capacity Building Manager. With over five years of experience in media support, she most recently oversaw grants and partnerships at an international fact-checking organisation. Previously, Suzanne was an Associate Programme Manager at Open Society Foundations, delivering grant funding, support projects, technical assistance and accelerator programs to international […]
Marta Cabrera
Marta Cabrera joined Media Defence as a lawyer in 2025. She worked for several years as an associate lawyer at the Spanish law firm Garrigues. After specializing in International Human Rights Law, she spent over a decade as a jurist at the European Court of Human Rights and as a senior lawyer at the Inter-American […]
Nefeli Custer
Nefeli has a BA in Classics and an MSc in Management. She began working in Fundraising at the British Horse Society and has been working at Media Defence since October 2023.
Anoushka Schellekens
Anoushka joined Media Defence in 2023 and now serves as Senior Communications Officer. She leads the implementation of the organisation’s communications strategy, overseeing content development, digital engagement and press relations to strengthen awareness of Media Defence’s legal work and its impact in defending journalists worldwide. She brings previous experience from the advertising and social enterprise sectors, where […]
Johanna Day
Johanna joined Media Defence in 2025 with responsibility for Finance and Operations. Previously, Johanna has led the Finance department of several charities, and she also has 20 years of consulting and financial services experience spanning compliance, risk & regulation, mergers & acquisitions, strategic and financial planning.
Yuri Marchenko
Yuri Marchenko joined Media Defence in 2023 as a Senior Legal Officer. Yuri is a lawyer with almost two decades of experience in human rights litigation, advocacy, and research. He worked at Validity Foundation in Budapest, the International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights (INTERIGHTS) in London, and the OSCE Office for Democratic […]
Elisabeth Witchel
Elisabeth joined Media Defence in 2022 as Coordinator of the Legal Network for Journalists at Risk, a global platform for coordinating different forms of legal support to independent journalists and media outlets around the world. She subsequently joined the Media Defence team full time as a Grants Officer. Prior to joining Media Defence, Elisabeth was […]