Journalists and Whistleblowers in an Era of Mass Surveillance

1:00 Welcome and introduction: Wolfgang H. Reinicke, Founding Dean of the School of Public Policy, CEU

 

Martin Scheinin, Professor of International Law and Human Rights at the European University Institute, former UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism 

Dunja Mijatović, OSCE Special Representative on Freedom of the Media

Sejal Parmar, Assistant Professor, Department of Legal Studies, CEU

 

2:30-3:00 Coffee break

 

Peter Noorlander, Chief Executive, Media Legal Defence Initiative
Irina Borogan, Deputy Editor, Agentura.ru
Anuška Delić, Investigative Journalist, Slovenian daily Delo 

Tamás Bodoky, Editor-in-chief, Atlatszo.hu

The disclosures of mass surveillance by the NSA and other security agencies by the whistleblower Edward Snowden have been met with a sense of outrage, particularly outside the United States, principally on the grounds of the human right to privacy. Yet the nature and degree of the mass surveillance that has been exposed as well as states’ responses to the publication of the revelations by the Guardian and other newspapers have also impacted upon freedom of expression, particularly that of journalists, as well as of the public at large. This event will ask a number of questions concerning the rights of journalists and whistleblowers in the face of states’ reliance on national security based arguments to justify their mass surveillance programmes. 

This event is co-financed by the European Commission under the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom pilot program framework. The project is carried out by SPP’s Center for Media, Data and Society and European University Institute’s Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom.