All speaker's biographies will be provided here soon, please check back for further updates.
Journalist, "To Vima" newspaper (2004-2010), contributor to "Eleftherotypia" newspaper (2011), freelancer for major Greek newspapers, radio and television networks and magazines. Journalist & reportage co-ordinator, UNFOLLOW magazine (2011 to present). Based in Athens, Greece. Reports from the UNFOLLOW magazine, as well as some other material, are compiled in English and hosted on the English website Edge of Borderline Democracy.
Kostas Arvanitis is a Greek journalist, member of the Journalists' Union of the Athens Daily Newspapers (ESIEA). He has been active in journalism since 1987 and has worked in various Greek newspapers and online media, as well as in various broadcasters as a TV and Radio presenter, including Diavlos 10 FM, Flash 96 FM, ERA (Second Programm) FM, NET 105.8 FM, Voice of Greece FM, Diesi FM, Vima FM, Mega Channel, NET channel (ERT), ET1 channel (ERT). Currently, he is the Director of the Greek radio station Sto Kokkino 105.5 FM. Before joining Sto Kokkino, Kostas Arvanitis was presenting a news/magazine TV programme on ERT, from where he was arbitrarily suspended after making a statement about the threats of the Greek public order minister, Nikos Dendias, against the newspaper Guardian. In paraller to his journalistic career, he has been a member of the Executive Board of the Therapy Center for Dependent Individuals (KETHEA) for the last three years, while he has been participating in activities of such therapeutic communities since 1987.
Walter Baier, Mag. Dr., is a Vienna based economist. He was chairperson of the Communist Party of Austria (1994 - 2006) and chief editor of the left wing weekly "Volksstimme". Since 2007 he is coordinator of transform! europe - network for alternative thinking and political dialogue and co-editor of its multilingual magazine of the same title. He is author of several books and numerous articles mainly in the field of research on the Left and the social movements.
Dr. Joan Barata Mir is the Principal Adviser to the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media. Before that he was a Professor of Communication Law and Vice Dean of International Relations at Blanquerna Communication School (Universitat Ramon Llull, Barcelona). He was also a Professor at the University of Barcelona (2001-2005), the Open University of Catalonia (since 1997) and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (2010-2011), as well as visiting scholar at the University of Bologna (Italy) (2003) and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (New York) (2003-2004).
His writings and research interests include topics such as freedom of expression, media regulation, public service broadcasting and political and legal media transitions. He has provided assistance to several institutions and organizations regarding these issues in countries such as Thailand, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan, Albania, Hungary, Dominican Republic, Colombia and the United States. He has been Head of President's Cabinet (2005-2009) and Secretary General of the Catalonia Audiovisual Council (2009-2011). He has also provided assistance to the OSCE (2004) and the Council of Europe (2012 and 2013).
Antonios Broumas is a technology lawyer, an independent researcher and a digital rights activist. His main areas of interest, research and writing focus on the interaction between law, technology and society. He is a member of the Digital Liberation Network, a grassroots organisation fighting for digital rights in Greece.
Miyase Christensen is Professor of Media and Communication Studies at Stockholm University and Guest Professor at the Department of Philosophy and History of Technology, Science and Environment, the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden. She is an editor of Popular Communication: International Journal of Media and Culture and the Chair of the Ethnicity and Race in Communication Division of ICA. Christensen obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. Christensen's research is interdisciplinary in nature and comprises thematic areas such as social theory perspectives on globalization processes and social change; technology, culture and identity; and, politics of popular communication.
He was born in Athens, in 1975. Initially he worked as a Graphic Designer and Programmer in several publications (newspapers and magazines mostly). In 2000 he founded Bits'n'Bytes, a software house that later, in 2005, evolved into a publishing house. It publishes magazines and web portals on the subjects of News&Politics, as well as Motorsport. He has been actively engaged in road safety issues and is awarded by the European Road Safety Charter for his work. Moreover, he has produced the documentary film "Debtocracy", created by Aris Chatzistefanou and Katerina Kitidi.
Dr Paloma Fernández de la Hoz MAS, Spanish citizen, born in 1952, is a social historian and educator. Since 1990 she is member of the Catholic Social Academy of Austria. From 2009 onwards lecturer at the University of Salzburg and the University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten, Austria. Former Work for the Institute of Demography of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, collaboration with the International Organization of Migratio. Selected Fields of activity: social research and political adult education, energy poverty, poverty and family life (especially migration and social integration ), intercultural competence, education in ICT.
Peter Fleissner is the president of the NGO transform!at. He was full professor of Social Cybernetics at the Vienna University of Technology. For many years he gave courses in data protection and data security. Before he worked for the European Commission at the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies in Sevilla, Spain, and at the European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia in Vienna, Austria.
Homepage: http://peter.fleissner.org/homepage/default.htm
Christian Fuchs is professor of social media at the University of Westminster in London. He is chair of the European Sociological Association's Research Network 18 - Sociology of Communications and Media Research as well as author of many academic publications, including the books "Social Media: A Critical Introduction" (2014), "Digital Labour and Karl Marx" (2014), "OccupyMedia! The Occupy Movement and Social Media in Crisis Capitalism" (Forthcoming), "Foundations of Critical Media and Information Studies" (2011), "Internet and Society: Social Theory in the Information Age" (2008) as well as the collected volumes "Critique, Social Media & The Information Society" (2014) and "Internet and Surveillance: The Challenges of Web 2.0 and Social Media" (2012).
Nikolaus Hamann, Librarian, Vienna Public Libraries since 1991, has been member of the "Arbeitskreis kritischer Bibliothekarinnen und Bibliothekare (KRIBIBI)" (Association of Critical Librarians in Austria) for many years and member of the board of KRIBIBI since 2011. Within the association he has organized and headed many of the annual conferences and made several presentations as well as many articles on library issues. He is also member of the board of "Vereinigung österreichischer Bibliothekarinnen und Bibliothekare (VÖB)" (Association of Austrian Librarians).
Dr Jackie Harrison is Professor of Public Communication and Chair Centre for Freedom of the Media, University of Sheffield, UK and Visiting Professor, Department of Information Science and Media Studies, University of Bergen, Norway. She is the author of numerous books and papers. Her current research is on the civil power of the news.
Arne Hintz is a Lecturer at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. His research connects communication policy, media activism, citizen media, and technological change. His publications include the book 'Civil Society Media and Global Governance' (2009) and the co-edited volume 'Beyond WikiLeaks: Implications for the Future of Communications, Journalism & Society' (2013). He is Chair of the Community Communication Section of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), and he has been a communication rights advocate with organisations such as the Community Media Forum Europe and the Open Rights Group.
William Horsley is an independent journalist and former BBC foreign correspondent who writes on international affairs and is active in several major policy initiatives to safeguard freedom of expression, counter violence against journalists and end impunity. He is the International Director of the Centre for Freedom of the Media at the University of Sheffield and UK chairman and Media Freedom Representative of the Association of European Journalists. He is the author of the OSCE's Safety of Journalists Guidebook and in 2014 he was appointed as an independent expert on the Council of Europe's Committee on the protection of journalism and safety of journalists.
George Katrougalos is professor of public law at Democritus University, Greece. He has worked as international expert on human rights and institutional building in Albania, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Syria and FYROM and as legal advisor to the Greek Mission at the United Nations on Human Rights issues. He has lectured as invited speaker among others at Columbia, Humboldt, Tilburg University and the London School of Economics. He has published extensively on comparative constitutional law, law and globalization and social rights. Among his monographs are: 'Crisis and Way Out', Athens, 2012, 'Social Policy and Social Rights at national and international levels', Athens, 2009 "Southern European Welfare States" (with G. Lazaridis), Palgrave Macmillan, London/N.York, 2003, "The Social state in the post-industrial era", Athens, 1998.
Andreas Krisch is President of European Digital Rights (EDRi, www.edri.org), of the Austrian Association for Internet Users (VIBE!AT) and the Austrian Working Group on Data Retention (AKVorrat.at). In his professional capacity he is managing partner of mksult GmbH (www.mksult.at), an Austrian data protection consultancy.
Andreas regularly contributes to the European discussion on a data protection compliant adoption of Information Technology. He repeatedly provided his expertise on data protection, RFID and the Internet of Things to institutions such as the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the OECD. With his colleagues at AKVorrat he initiated the constitutional complaint against mandatory data retention in Austria, which was filed by 11.139 plaintifs and lead to the current case at the ECJ.
Andreas Krisch is member of the Austrian Data Protection Council.
Dr. Joachim Losehand is VIBE Coordinator Copyright Issues, Creative Commons Austria Project Lead Open Science, Austrian Representative and Co-Founder of the Cultural Commons Collecting Society (C3S). Internet: http://losehand.at/
Erich Moechel has been working as a news editor and investigative reporter to ORF.at for the past 15 years. Focus is on surveillance vs privacy in the digital age, related technologies and lawmaking processes especially in the EU. Free and open source software, cryptography and non-civilian IT are essential constituents of the reporting portfolio.
René Pfeiffer is one of the organiser of the annual DeepSec In-Depth Security Conference. He works self-employed in information technology, lectures at the Technikum Wien, and is involved with cryptography and information security for over 20 years.
Gill Phillips, Director of Editorial Legal Services, Guardian News & Media, is a media law specialist. She advises on a range of content-related matters including defamation, privacy, contempt of court and reporting restrictions. She joined the BBC in 1987 as an in-house lawyer dealing with pre- and post- publication review and litigation matters. Between 1996 and 1997, she was an in-house lawyer at News Group Newspapers (The Sun and The News of the World) before moving to the College of Law, where she lectured in civil and criminal litigation and employment. In 2000, she joined Times Newspapers Limited as an in-house lawyer, becoming Head of Litigation. In 2009, she moved to Guardian News & Media Limited. She has advised Guardian News & Media on its ground-breaking coverage of major issues pertaining to the freedom of information in recent years, including phone-hacking, Wikileaks, the Leveson Inquiry and most recently the NSA leaks from Edward Snowden. She was a member of the Ministry of Justice's Working Group on Libel Reform. She also sits as a part-time Employment Tribunal Judge and co-authors the College of Law Employment Law handbook.
Minas Samatas is a Professor of political sociology at the Sociology Department of University of Crete, Greece. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. in sociology from the Sociology Department of the Graduate Faculty of New School for Social Research , New York, USA. He has published extensively in international and Greek journals, on issues like Greek McCarthyism, Greece in 'Schengenland', Security and Surveillance in Athens 2004 Olympics etc. He is the author of Surveillance in Greece: From anticommunist to the consumer surveillance, Pella, N.Y. 2004 , and co-editor with Kevin Haggerty of Surveillance and Democracy, Routledge 2010. He can be reached at the email samatas[at]uoc[dot]gr.
Dr. Lisa Schilhan, Librarian, obtained her doctorate in art history, works at the University Library at the Karl-Franzens-University Graz. She is currently working on an Open Access project which includes establishing an institutional open access repository, working closely with scientists to advise, counsel and develop new strategies on this topic. As a lecturer she is involved in information literacy programs for undergraduates and as an open access consultant for graduates and young scientists. She is also member of the executive committee of the "Vereinigung österreichischer Bibliothekarinnen und Bibliothekare (VÖB)" (Association of Austrian Librarians).
1974 - 1980: Studied at Moscow State Institute for International Relations, graduated in political science; 1980 - 1987: Foreign Ministry of the German Democratic Republic; 1983 - 1986: GDR Embassy in the People's Republic of China; 1987 - 1989: Department for International Relations of the Central Committee of SED, Then member of the working group on the renewal of the party; 1990 - 1999: Different responsibilities in international relations for PDS, later DIE LINKE; 2000 - 2009: Head of the party's international department; 2007 - 2010: Member of the Party Executive Committee of DIE LINKE.; 2004 - 2013: Member of the Party Executive Committee and the Executive Board of the Party of the European Left (EL); since 2009: Member of the European Parliament
Harald Schumann is a German award-winning author and investigative journalist for the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel. In his 30 year experience in journalism, he has previously been a reporter and an editor for the newspapers Der Spiegel, Der Morgen, and Tageszeitung. He has also been the author or co-author of several books, including and the international best-seller "The Global Trap" (1996), "Attac - What do the critics of globalisation want?" (2002, in German), "The global countdown - Justice or Self-Destruction, the Future of Globalisation" (2008, in German).
Sebastian studied communication, philosophy, and theology at the university of Salzburg, Austria. His recently submitted PhD thesis engages with discursive and economic-practical commodification of privacy and personal data in informational capitalism and alternatives to these processes. From February 2014 he holds a postdoc position at the Friedrich-Schiller University's institute of sociology in Jena, Germany. Sebastian is member of the editorial board of the journal tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Further information: http://sevignani.uti.at
SpiderAlex is a sociologist, PhD in social economy and a researcher on ICT for the public good. She is also an hacktivist involved in the development of technological sovereignty initiatives and a cyberfeminist studying the relationship between gender and ICT.
Stanka Tosheva has worked as a journalist in Bulgaria for over thirty five years. Currently she is the editor-in-chief of Capital Weekly and Capital Daily managing a team of over 50 reporters and technical staff. She has worked at Capital as a political reporter, political editor and deputy editor-in-chief since the independent newspaper was founded in 1993.
Barbara Trionfi received an M.A. degree in International Relations from Webster University in Vienna with a focus on international human rights mechanisms. Barbara started working at the International Press Institute in 1999 as Press Freedom Adviser for the Asia-Pacific region. Today, as Press Freedom Manager, she also oversees IPI press freedom activities and leads the IPI press freedom team. Her field of expertise covers different areas related to press freedom and freedom of expression, including media ethics and self-regulatory media accountability systems, journalists safety, and international mechanisms to protect press freedom.
Dimitris Tsapogas is a PhD researcher at the University of Vienna in Austria and a digital rights activist. He has previously studied Philosophy and History of Science at the University of Athens in Greece and has earned an MSc in Interactive Technologies at the University of Brighton in UK. Dimitris research is interdisciplinary and his interests include the relationship between surveillance and political participation, new forms of political communication, participation and mobilisation, communication privacy, policy and rights.
Pepi Zawodsky is a self-employed systems administrator with 20 years of experience, working on IT-security, privacy and user training. He is also an anonymity advocate and the Co-Organiser of CryptoParty Wien, a decentralized, global initiative to introduce the most basic cryptography software and the fundamental concepts of their operation to the general public.
Journalist, "To Vima" newspaper (2000-2010). Co-publisher, "a. the athens contemporary art review" (2006-2007). Co-founder of Athens Biennale (2005) and Co-director (until 2011). One third of XYZ curatorial trio (2005-2011). Radio host, "Radiobubble" (2010-2011), and "The Press Project" (2011-2012). Journalist & editorial co-ordinator, UNFOLLOW magazine (November 2011 to present). Based in Athens, Greece. Reports from the UNFOLLOW magazine, as well as some other material, are compiled in English and hosted on the English website Edge of Borderline Democracy.
