Patrick Aichroth
Member of the Advisory Council
Patrick Aichroth worked as a freelance software developer and IT trainer before becoming a research associate at Fraunhofer IDMT in 2003. Since 2006, he has been head of the Media Distribution and Security Group at Fraunhofer IDMT, which focuses on the development of technologies for audio manipulation detection and provenance analysis, media security, privacy enhancing technologies and trustworthy AI.
Jeff Allen
Policy Analysis and Research
Jeff Allen is a former physicist and astronomer who left academia for data science in 2013. Since then, he has worked on multiple sides of the internet information ecosystem: on publishers who are trying to maximise the traffic they get from platforms, on platforms themselves, and on political organisations and campaigns just trying to navigate the online spaces. While at Facebook, he worked on tackling systemic issues in the public content ecosystems of Facebook and Instagram, developing strategies to ensure that the incentive structure that the platforms created for publishers was in alignment with Facebook’s company mission statement. Jeff is the co-founder and Chief Research Officer for the Integrity Institute. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Alina Bârgăoanu
Member of the Advisory Council
Alina Bârgăoanu, PhD, is a Romanian communication scholar, dean of the College of Communication and Public Relations, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (Bucharest); member of the Advisory Council of European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) and of EDMO’s task force on the war in Ukraine; Marcin Król Fellow at Visegrad Insight (October 2021 – September 2022); visiting fellow at Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University (October 2018 – March 2019); member of the High-Level Expert Group on Fake News and Online Disinformation, EC (2018); founder and editor-in-chief of the fact-checking portal Antifake.ro; media commentator and columnist on topics related to disinformation, resilience and the role of technology in shaping the information ecosystem.
Anja Bechmann
Research
Anja Bechmann is Professor at the Department of Media Studies, Aarhus University and director of DATALAB – Center for Digital Social Research and the EU Center of Excellence for Research in Social Media and Information Disorder (EU REMID). Her research examines social media communication and collective behavior using large-scale data collection and applied machine learning. Bechmann’s field of research are disinformation, digital sociology, privacy, critical algorithmic and AI studies and digital news studies, and her research has published in high ranked journals and publishers such as New, Media & Society, Information Society, First Monday, Routledge and MIT Press. She is Co- Chair of the Association of Internet Researchers Ethics Committee appointed member of the Academy of Technical Sciences and board member of the Danish Council for Digital Security. She was member of the High Level Expert Group on Fake News and Disinformation under the EU Commission and Thinker in Residence 2019 on Democracy & Disinformation at The Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts. Her expertise and network will be crucial to facilitate the mapping of disinformation research and relevant academic institutions and organisations.
Kalina Bontcheva
Member of the Advisory Council
Prof. Dr. Kalina Bontcheva leads the Natural Language Processing Group at the Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield. She is also a member of Sheffield’s Center for Freedom of the Media and Senior Research Leader at the Big Data and Smart Society Institute in Bulgaria. Between 2014 and 2016 Bontcheva conceived and lead the PHEME project, which was amongst the first EU projects to study computational methods for the detection and tracking of disinformation in social media. She is currently the scientific director of the WeVerify project. Since 2015 Bontcheva has been working also on real-time social media analysis around United Kingdom general elections and referenda and on monitoring and analysis of online abuse towards UK politicians. Most recently she coauthored an ITU/UNESCO study, Balancing Act: Countering Digital Disinformation while Respecting Freedom of Expression and two UNESCO policy briefs on Combating the Disinfodemic: Working for Truth in the Time of COVID-19.
Elda Brogi
Coordinator Policy Analysis and Research
Dr Elda Brogi, is the Scientific Coordinator of the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) at the European University Institute in Florence. In particular, she coordinates and supervises the flagship project of the Centre, the Media Pluralism Monitor, a tool designed to collect and analyse data to identify potential risks to media pluralism in EU Member States. She also teaches Communication Law at the University of Florence. She has served as a member of several expert committees at the Council of Europe: the Committee of experts on media pluralism and transparency of media ownership (MSI-MED), the Committee of experts on protection of journalism and safety of journalists (MSI-JO) in 2014-2015, and she is currently member of the MSI-REF Committee of Experts on Media Environment and Reform, and co-rapporteur on the draft recommendation by the Committee of Ministers to member States on election communication and media coverage of electoral campaigns. Member of the Advisory council for the 2017 “World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development” Report, UNESCO. She holds a degree in Law (University of Florence), a Ph.D. in Public Law and Constitutional Law (University La Sapienza, Rome).
Tommaso Canetta
Fact-checking Coordinator
Tommaso Canetta is the deputy Director of Pagella Politica. He has a master’s degree in Law, with specialization in International and European Law, and a master in Journalism. He has been a professional journalist since 2012 and a fact-checker since 2016, when he started to work for Pagella Politica.
Maja Cappello
Member of the Advisory Council
Maja Cappello joined the European Audiovisual Observatory in Strasbourg as Head of the Department for Legal Information in 2014. Set up in December 1992, the Observatory’s mission is to gather and diffuse information on the audiovisual industry in Europe. The Observatory operates within the legal framework of the Council of Europe as a European public service body comprising 41 member states and the EU, represented by the European Commission. From 2019 to 2023 she has been member of the Italian Superior Council for Cinema and Audiovisual. Before joining the Observatory, Maja Cappello worked for the Italian regulator AGCOM from 1998 and was Head of AGCOM’s Digital Rights Unit of the Media Services Directorate. She was also Vice President of EPRA (European Platform of Regulatory Authorities) from 2011 to 2014. Italian-Norwegian mother tongue, she is author of articles and speeches in the areas of audiovisual media services, media pluralism, copyright and consumer protection and holds an LLM in EU law and a PhD in European social law after graduating in Law in 1994.
Louise Carnapete-Rinieri
Project Associate
Louise Carnapete-Rinieri started as a trainee at the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), within the School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute (EUI). She speaks French, English, German, Portuguese and Italian. She worked as a research assistant for SciencesPo Paris and for the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development within various international and interdisciplinary projects. She gained insight into European politics and disinformation challenges as an intern at the French embassy in Portugal during European elections and as a data analyst for a Dutch fact-checking organization during the German parliamentary elections. She holds a bi-national BA in History and Sociology from the Bielefeld University and from the University of Paris VII – Denis Diderot and recently graduated in Contemporary European Studies with a MA from the University of Bath, Humboldt University of Berlin, and the University of Siena.
Silvia Cavasola
Project Manager
Silvia Cavasola, PhD, has been Project manager at Pagella Politica since 2018, coordinating European projects and international collaborations. She had previously covered a similar role at the World Tourism Organization – UNWTO (2016-18, Madrid). With a background in political science, she has also been a research consultant to the Italian National Research Center (CNR) and the Active Citizenship Foundation (Fondaca).
Paolo Cesarini
Programme Director
Paolo Cesarini is the Programme Director of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) and the European Media and Information Fund (EMIF) projects at the EUI. He also collaborates as a Senior Advisor at Teneo, a global CEO advisory firm, providing counsel in management, strategy and corporate communications. Expert in media policies, Digital Single Market and EU competition law, Paolo Cesarini previously held management roles at the European Commission, namely in the Directorate-General for competition (DG COMP), covering both the antitrust and State aid policy areas, and in the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT), where he led various initiatives addressing the technological transition of the European media industry, the interdependency of societal issues and digital media, online disinformation and the innovation gap between research, technology and culture. Before joining the European Commission, he worked as a member of the Legal Service at the Inter-national Labour Organisation in Geneva. He has also been teaching EU competition law at the universities of Siena and Montpellier and is a frequent public speaker and author of various publications on EU competition and media laws. Paolo holds a master’s in international law from the University of Siena and a LLM from the College of Europe, Bruges.
Madeleine de Cock Buning
Chair of the Advisory Council
Prof. Dr. de Cock Buning is coordinator of the Cluster on Digital Politics, Economy and Societies at the School of Transnational Governance of the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence and chaired professor of Copyright and Media Law at the Faculty of Law (UU) in Utrecht, The Netherlands. De Cock Buning was Chair of the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group (HLEG) on fake news and disinformation (2018), chair of the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA) (2016 & 2017) and was President of the Board of Commissioners at the Dutch Media Authority (2009-2019). She was Honorary Judge of the Court of Appeal in The Hague (2010-2020) and was a panelist of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) (2001-2018). Next to her chairs in Italy and the Netherlands, Prof. Dr. Madeleine de Cock Buning is Vice President Public Policy EMEA at Netflix.
Julia Conemans
Member of the Executive Board – Hubs representative (BENEDMO)
Julia Conemans coordinates the Dutch and Flemish hub BENEDMO. She is affiliated with the Institute for the Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision where she works as program manager media and democracy. Within this role she is responsible for the Dutch expert group Round Table on Disinformation. Julia has academic degrees in European law and European studies and has worked in journalism – print, online, and radio- for over a decade. She specialised in sustainability and climate change. In 2020, she was part of the Education lab of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Amsterdam, where she had a role in the development of tools and programmes for interdisciplinary education on complex societal problems.
Peter Erdelyi
Member of the Executive Board – Hubs representative (HDMO)
Peter Erdelyi an editor and media executive from Budapest, Hungary with 20+ years of experience in journalism and media management. Over the past two decades, he was involved with launching various digital (mainap.hu; 444.hu) and print (MAKRO magazine) media projects. Most recently he founded Hungary’s first dedicated anti-disinformation site lakmusz.hu (namesake of the Hungary hub HDMO) where he serves as director. As a Fellow at the Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford he did research on media financing in repressive political environments. He regularly gives lectures on media sustainability, state capture of the mediaspace and disinformation.
Christos Gavalas
Training Consultant
Christos Gavalas is a digital journalist from Athens, Greece. He holds a BA in Business Administration from Athens University of Economics and Business, a MA in Broadcast Journalism from NYU, and a diploma of Data Journalism at Columbia University as a Stavros Niarchos Foundation Fellow. Writer of the first column in the Greek magazine history about the Internet at the age of 18, he experienced the domination of the 3rd industrial revolution as a youngster who loved to express himself by writing and combining it with technology. He developed a deep interest in investigative documentaries and received a prestigious assistantship as a graduate student by the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Science. After he returned from New York, where he also interned at CNN and the United Nations, he landed a position as an editor at MEGA TV’s digital desk and for the Greek version of Microsoft’s MSN. In 2017, to be part of the changing journalistic landscape, he earned a scholarship and went back to becoming a student; at Columbia University, he obtained a master-level diploma in data journalism and enhanced his technological skill set by learning coding skills and visualisation tools. Upon his return, he conceived and anchored the first CNN Greece’s newscast and managed a team of multimedia professionals, in their efforts to produce original video content. His web interview – based show has attracted numerous academics and professionals from around the world, with whom he discusses topics of global importance. He joined ATC in June 2022 as a Business Development and Community Manager, working closely with the product development and sales teams of ATC’s media products.
Radovan Geist
Member of the Advisory Council
Radovan Geist is the co-founder and Publisher of EURACTIV Slovakia. Working in media since 2002, he is a regular commentator for Slovak & European media. His weekly columns on European issues are published by dailies Dennik N and Pravda. With PhD degree in political science, he is an external lecturer at the Comenius University in Bratislava, Department of Political Science, teaching on political philosophy, authoritarianism and democratic backsliding. His research interests include analysis of political and media discourse, and the impact of EU membership on Visegrad countries (here).
Lisa Ginsborg
Training and Research
Dr Lisa Ginsborg works at the European University Institute (EUI) School of Transnational Governance on the Thematic Cluster on Digital Politics Economy and Society and is a Lecturer in International Human Rights at New York University (NYU) Florence. She has worked as a Post-Doctoral Researcher at University College Dublin (UCD) and at the EUI-based Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom in the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies; as a Teaching Fellow at the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation (EIUC); and was a visiting researcher at NYU School of Law and at the Sydney Centre for International Law at the University of Sydney. Previously she worked in the legal department of the International Secretariat of Amnesty International (2006–2009) and in the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) (2005–2006). She has worked as a consultant for a number of human rights organizations and as a lecturer on human rights undergraduate and postgraduate courses. She holds a PhD in Public International Law from the EUI and an MSc in Political Sociology from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Emma Goodman
Media Literacy Research and Policy
Emma Goodman works at the European University Institute (EUI) School of Transnational Governance as a part-time Research Associate for the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), focusing on media literacy research and policy. She also works part-time at the London School of Economics and Political Science as a Policy Officer in the Department of Media and Communication, where her goal is to make the Department’s research more accessible and impactful. She has worked as a research consultant for UK media regulator Ofcom on its media literacy evaluation toolkit, and as part of an LSE team investigating the challenges associated with media literacy provision for the UK Government’s Department of Science, Innovation and Technology. She has also carried out research on gender and news media, commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Paula Gori
Secretary-General, Coordinator
Paula Gori is the Secretary-General and Coordinator of EDMO. She joined the School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute in 2017 where she is a member of the management team. Prior she was the Coordinator of the Florence School of Regulation – Communications and Media, which offers training, policy and research activities on electronic communications regulation and competition and she collaborated with the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom, which she coordinated during the initial set-up phase back in 2012. She was for several years the Scientific Coordinator of the Annual Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics and she is one of the authors of the report for the European Commission on European Union competences in respect of media pluralism and media freedom. Paula has a legal background and is a qualified civil mediator.
Claes H. de Vreese
Member of the Executive Board
Claes H. de Vreese is Distinguished University Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Society with a special focus on Media and Democracy, University of Amsterdam (UvA). He co-directs the AI, Media & Democracy Lab at UvA as well as the national research program (2022-2032) Public Values in the Algorithmic Society algosoc. He is also the Scientific Director of the Digital Democracy Centre at the University of Southen Denmark. His research interests include the role of data and artificial intelligence in democratic processes, microtargeting, comparative journalism research, the effects of news, public opinion and European integration. He is recipient of the Swanson Career Achievement Award (ICA, 2018), the NeFCA Career Award (2019), and he is an elected Fellow of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, the International Communication Association, and the Royal Holland Society of Sciences. He has published 250+ articles in international peer-reviewed journals and several books with university presses. He has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University, Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Zurich, and University of Southern Denmark. He has lectured in a dozen countries and frequently appears in (inter)national news media. He was the Editor in Chief of Political Communication (2014-2020).
Igor Kanižaj
Member of the Advisory Council
Igor Kanižaj, Ph.D. is Associate Professor at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Political Science. He is head of the Department of Journalism and Media Production and vice president of the Association for Communication and Media Culture (DKMK). Together with his associates, he is coordinating the project Djeca medija, the most prominent media education project in Croatia. He is the co-author of the first public opinion research on Media Literacy in Croatia and co-author of the Paris Declaration on Media and Information Literacy (UNESCO). From 2016-2019 he was the national coordinator of EU Kids Online. He is also co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of Media Education Futures Post-Pandemic, published in 2023.
Katarína Klingová
Policy Analysis and Research
Katarína Klingová is a Senior Research Fellow of the Centre for Democracy & Resilience at the GLOBSEC and works on the Policy Analysis and Research task of EDMO. Since 2016 she has led research on information operations and hybrid threats, and capacity-building projects focusing on societal resilience, vulnerabilities of public administration, and strategic communication. She holds an MA in Political Science with Specialization in Research Methodology and Social Analysis from the Central European University in Vienna and an MA in European Studies from Comenius University in Bratislava. In her previous capacities, she worked for Transparency International Slovakia and the European Commission.
Abagail Lawson
Policy Analysis and Research
Abby’s background is in the international think tank space, producing research and managing programmes at the intersection of tech policy, cybersecurity and international relations. Her work has covered a wide range of topics, from systemic risk and cyber insurance to UN negotiations on cybercrime and responsible state behaviour in cyberspace – and most recently, content moderation and platform regulation. She is based in New York City.
Christophe Leclercq
Member of the Advisory Council
Christophe Leclercq is a Former management consultant (McKinsey Brussels and Moscow) and EU official (1995-1998, DG COMP: information society coordinator). Founder of EURACTIV media network (no more management role) and Executive Chair of Europe’s MediaLab (Fondation EURACTIV). He was a high-level expert on an EU Group on disinformation, and has a lot of governance experience, on large and small corporate and associate boards. Christophe graduated in political science (Sciences Po Paris), in business economics (HEC Business School), and in International Relations (ULB, Brussels).
Sonia Livingstone
Member of the Advisory Council
Sonia Livingstone DPhil (Oxon), OBE, FBA, FBPS, FAcSS, FRSA, is a professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Sonia has published 20 books on media audiences, especially children and young people’s risks and opportunities, media literacy and rights in the digital environment. Her forthcoming book is “Parenting for a Digital Future: How hopes and fears about technology shape children’s lives” (Oxford University Press). Recipient of many honours, she has advised the UK government, European Commission, European Parliament, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, OECD, ITU and UNICEF, among others, on children’s internet safety and rights in the digital environment. Sonia served as chair of the LSE’s Truth, Trust and Technology Commission, Special Advisor to the House of Lords’ Select Committee on Communications, Expert Advisor to the Council of Europe, President of the International Communication Association, and Executive Board member of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety. Sonia currently directs the Digital Futures Commission (with the 5Rights Foundation) and the Global Kids Online project (with UNICEF). She is Deputy Director of UKRI-funded Nurture Network and leads work packages for H2020-funded projects: ySKILLS (Youth Skills) and CO:RE (Children Online: Research and Evidence).
Miguel Poiares Maduro
Chair of the Executive Board
Miguel Poiares Maduro, Dean of the Global School of Law at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa and Professor of the Vieira de Almeida Chair. He is also the Chair of the Executive Board of the European Digital Media Observatory. He was until the summer of 2020 Professor and Director of the School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute where he continues to be a Visiting Professor. From 2013 to 2015 he was Minister Adjunct to the Prime Minister and Minister for Regional Development in Portugal. Until October 2009 he was Advocate General at the European Court of Justice. He is a Doctor of Laws by the European University Institute (Florence) and was winner of the best PhD thesis and best researcher of the Law Department at the EUI. He has been a regular Visiting Professor at Yale Law School, the Centro de Estudios Constitucionales (Madrid), the Chicago Law School and London School of Economics, He is also teaching at the Universidade Católica and the College of Europe. From July 2016 to May 2017 he was Chairman of the Governance and Review Committee of FIFA. He has been honoured by the President of the Portuguese Republic with the Order of Sant’Iago da Espada for literary, scientific and artistic merit. In 2010 he was awarded the Gulbenkian Science Prize. His more recent book is Democracy in Times of Pandemic (with Paul Kahn).
Elena Maggi
EDMO Hubs Coordinator
Elena Maggi works at the European University Institute (EUI) School of Transnational Governance as Project Associate for the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO). In her role, she works on coordinating the activities of EDMO across the 14 national and multinational EDMO Hubs. Until April 2021 she was Policy and Communications Advisor at the European Cleaning and Facility Services Industry (EFCI). She gained professional experience in EU public affairs and cultural policies in different European institutions and organisations including Culture Action Europe (CAE) and the European Parliamentary Research Service (DG EPRS) at the European Parliament. She holds an MSc in European Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE) and a Double BSc in Philosophy and Political Sciences from the Paris I-Panthéon Sorbonne University.
Sahar Massachi
Policy Analysis and Research
Sahar was born in Israel to two refugees from Iran, and grew up in Rochester, New York. During a four-year stint at Facebook, he worked on the civic integrity team, which protected elections and deepened civic engagement worldwide. Before that, he ran the data for fundraising at Wikipedia, and founded two prosocial startups. Since then, Sahar became a fellow (now affiliate) at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. He is a member of the advisory committee of the Louis D. Brandeis Legacy Fund for Social Justice, a StartingBloc fellow, and a Roddenbery Fellow. Sahar is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Integrity Institute. He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his beloved.
Giacomo Mazzone
Member of the Advisory Council
Giacomo Mazzone is Manager of the Public Service Broadcasting and Media with over 35 years’ experience in the news, sport and international relations sectors. Trained as a journalist, with a great deal of experience in international companies and organizations (RAI, Euronews, Eurosport, and then EBU European Broadcasting Union). He has worked for all traditional media (press, radio, general interest TV) and later in the then-called new media (all-news channels, Internet portals). In RAI he has been a journalist in the newsroom of RAI 2 for 15 years. Then has been among the founders of the Euronews project (1992-1997), where he managed special events coverage and partnerships, and later was appointed director of European Affairs and of the relations with EU institutions. Called back to Italy in 1997 to manage the launch of RAI all-news channel RAINEWS 24 then was in charge of RAI’s international relations until he left for EBU in Geneva in 2002. Since 2013 he is also representative of WBU (World Broadcasting Unions) into the GAC of ICANN and has been member of the MAG IGF (Internet Governance Forum) on behalf of the media sector (2014-2016). He has published a dozen books on news, media and internet. Married with 2 children, living in Geneva.
Clare Melford
Member of the Advisory Council
Clare Melford is the Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer of The Global Disinformation Index, a not-for-profit that aims to disrupt, defund and down-rank disinformation. An experienced CEO in the commercial and not-for-profit sectors, Clare was formerly CEO of the International Business Leaders Forum and MD of MTV Networks, Nordics. She has worked on startups in e-commerce, fin-tech and ed-tech. Currently, Clare also serves on the Advisory Council for the European Digital Media Observatory, a project that supports the independent community working to combat disinformation. Clare was a founding board member of Girls not Brides, the global coalition to end child marriage.
Stephan Mündges
Member of the Executive Board – Hubs representative (GADMO)
Stephan Mündges is the General Manager of the Institute of Journalism at TU Dortmund University and one of the coordinators of the German-Austrian Digital Media Observatory. Stephan has worked most of his professional as a journalist. For 12 years he was a reporter and producer for the German public broadcaster ZDF, where he reported on digital issues, platform regulation and disinformation campaigns. In 2016 he joined the Institute of Journalism as researcher and lecturer focusing on the digital transformation of journalism.
Iva Nenadić
Policy Analysis and Research
Iva Nenadić is a Research Fellow at the European University Institute’s Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom and an Assistant Professor in Journalism at the University of Zagreb. She is one of coordinators in the Media Pluralism Monitor. Her research focuses on the interplay between journalism and technology, with a special focus on how content moderation policies by online platforms affect professional and economic sustainability of journalism, and citizens’ engagement with news. Within EDMO, Iva works on Policy Research and Analysis, including the work on designing Structural Indicators for the Code of Practice on Disinformation. In 2021/2022 she was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, USA, where she maintains affiliation with the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life. Iva holds a Ph.D in communication science from University of Osijek in Croatia. Prior to her academic work, she worked extensively in the media sector as a journalist, editor, and producer.
Pier Luigi Parcu
Member of the Advisory Council
Pier Luigi Parcu is a part-time Professor at the European University Institute (EUI) from 2010. He is currently Area Director of the FSR Communications & Media, Director of the Florence Competition Programme and Director of the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom. Since 2004 he has been Chairman of a consultancy company specialized in antitrust and regulation. From 2000 to 2003, he was CEO of the public company running the Italian Electricity Grid (GRTN). From 1991 to 2000 he was the Director of Investigation at the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM). Previously, he served as Chief Economist at the Italian Security and Exchange Commission (CONSOB) and as Economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). His research interest in the area of law and economics focuses on the interaction between regulation and antitrust in shaping firms’ behaviour. Most recently he is writing on innovation, standardization and platforms. As regards research in the media area, Professor Parcu’s interests focus primarily on the effects of media concentration on pluralism and freedom of expression and on the influence of online business models on legacy media and professional journalism.
Sally Reynolds
Member of the Executive Board, Chief Operating Officer
Sally Reynolds has been working part-time as the Chief Operational Officer of the Media & Learning Association since October 2015. In this capacity, she has overall responsibility for the day-to-day management of the association and reports directly to the MLA Board of Management. Through her work in the association, Sally has been actively engaged in various media literacy activities for several years and is currently the Director of Media Literacy for EDMOeu as well as being an observer in the European Commission’s Media Literacy Experts group. She was also a member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on Tackling disinformation and promoting digital literacy through education and training in 2022 which drafted guidelines for teachers and is an active member of EMIL, EPRA’s media literacy taskforce as well as leading and supporting several media literacy projects funded by the European Commission and EMIF. Sally also works regularly as a reviewer and evaluator for the European Commission.
Gianni Riotta
Member of the Advisory Council
Gianni Riotta is Pirelli Visiting Professor at Princeton University and Dean of the Master of Communication Luiss University, Rome, where he founded Datalab, member of the European Union Soma Project against disinformation. He is Executive Vice President of the Council for the United States and Italy. Columnist for La Stampa, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, he was Editor-in-Chief at Tg1 Rai and Sole 24 Ore, Deputy Editor at La Stampa and Corriere della Sera. Previously a correspondent and columnist for Corriere della Sera based in New York. In 2015 Riotta founded the digital start up Catchy. Gianni Riotta is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He contributes to the BBC World Service. His columns have been published by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Le Monde, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Guardian, El Pais, Suddeutsche Zeitung, Foreign Affairs. His books have been translated into many languages. Foreign Policy and Prospect included Riotta in their ranking “World 100 global thinkers”. Gianni Riotta graduated in Logics at Università Palermo and holds an MS from Columbia University, Graduate School of Journalism. An international web influencer Gianni Riotta tweets @riotta , is active Facebook riotta.it, Instagram @gianniriotta and the website www.riotta.it .
Nikos Sarris
Technical Coordinator
Nikos Sarris joined ATC in 2004 as a Senior IT Consultant. Between 2013 and 2020 he headed the Innovation lab and since then is the Head of technologies against disinformation, while being a Senior Researcher at MKLab of ITI-CERTH and a member of MeVer. He received his PhD from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2003 and his Master of Engineering degree from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in 1995. Nikos has been working for more than 20 years in R&D projects as a researcher, project manager and coordinator of large multinational consortia. He has authored numerous publications for international journals and conferences. In the latest years he has been involved in media related projects focusing on the semantic analysis and ‘understanding’ of multimedia news content. He has managed two related products on behalf of ATC: TruthNest and Truly Media, the latter in cooperation with Deutsche Welle. Nikos is the coordinator of the EC-funded SOMA project tasked to empower the European Observatory against Disinformation.
Giovanni Sartor
Member of the Advisory Council
Part-time professor at Faculty of Law at the University of Bologna and at the EUI. Appointed in 2006, contract renewed until 2024. Giovanni Sartor is currently Principal Investigator for the ERC (Europen Research Council) Advanced project COMPULAW, started on 1 November 2019, to be completed on 31 October 2024. He is a part-time professor in legal informatics at the University of Bologna and part-time professor in Legal informatics and Legal Theory at the European University Institute. He obtained a Ph.D. at the EUI, researcher at the Italian National Council of Research (ITTIG, Florence), chair in Jurisprudence at Queen’s University of Belfast, and was Marie-Curie professor at the EUI. He has been President of the International Association for Artificial Intelligence and Law. He has published widely on artificial intelligence and law, computational logic, legal theory/philosophy, and computer law.
Roeland Scholtalbers
Spokesperson
Roeland Scholtalbers works as Communications Specialist at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. The European University Institute (EUI) provides advanced academic training in the social sciences for doctoral and post-doctoral researchers, and fosters research in fields of particular relevance for the development of Europe. Scholtalbers divides his time between the EUI’s Communications Service and the Institute’s School of Transnational Governance. Until August 2019, Scholtalbers was Director of Communications at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, where he led initiatives in the areas of internal and external communications, events and patronage. Previously, he worked in communications roles at the international alliance of Catholic development agencies CIDSE and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. Scholtalbers started his career at the Centre for the Study of Political Change (CIRCaP) at the University of Siena, Italy.
Garifalia Sebou
Administration
Garifalia Sebou has been working with ATC since 2007. She holds a BSc Degree in Political Science & Public Administration from the University of Athens. She is working in the ATC Innovation Lab as a Project Dissemination Manager overseeing the unit’s dissemination, marketing and internet marketing activities. She has been involved in EU R&D and National funded projects since 2008. She is currently involved in the field of business applications, user requirements capture, specifications analysis, project management and dissemination/marketing activities in European and National R&D projects.
Jochen Spangenberg
Member of the Advisory Council
Jochen Spangenberg is Deputy Head, Research and Cooperation Projects, at Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle. The unit operates at the intersection of journalism, IT, and media science. In addition to strategic and management issues, Jochen’s topical focus over the past years has been on social newsgathering, analysis and verification of digital / user-generated content, and the use of eyewitness media for news reporting. Jochen furthermore coordinates all verification projects and activities of the unit. Previously, Jochen was Chief Operating Officer and Editor-in-Chief at a new media company, and worked for BBC News & Current Affairs in radio and TV. Jochen also lectures at the Free University Berlin in Media & Communication Sciences, and is an advisor as well as occasional teacher for Lie Detectors, an NGO that brings media literacy into classrooms. He is the author of the book The BBC in Transition and a number of articles, papers and book chapters.
Rebekah Tromble
Member of the Advisory Council
Dr. Rebekah Tromble is Director of the Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics and Associate Professor in the School of Media and Public Affairs and at George Washington University. Her research focuses on political communication, digital research methodology, and research ethics, with particular interests in political discourse on social media, as well as the impacts of exposure to online disinformation and abusive content. Dr. Tromble is currently leading a team of international researchers from both the social and computer sciences to investigate the “health” of political conversations on Twitter. She is also a member of the Social Science One European Advisory Committee. Dr. Tromble consults regularly for industry and policymakers, particularly on topics of digital platform accountability, responsible data use, and best practices for combatting the effects of misinformation.
Danae Tsabouraki
Consultant
Danae Tsabouraki has been working at the ATC Innovation Lab since 2011 as a Junior Researcher and since 2018 as a Project Manager in EU R&D funded projects in the media sector. Danae holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law and a Master’s degree in Sociology of Law from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (UoA), as well as a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB). She has been practicing law since 2012, mainly in the fields of commercial and corporate law (intellectual property, data protection, contracts, competition law, etc.). Her interests lie among others in the areas of socio-legal research in response to technological innovations, online content regulation, media literacy, and disinformation. Danae is a member of the Athens Bar Association.
Stratos Tzoannos
Senior Expert/Analyst
Stratos Tzoannos currently holds the position of head of Engineering at ATC Innovation Lab (ATH division). He has worked as a Senior Software Engineer, Team Leader and Product Manager, with 15 years of experience in a wide range of contexts and technologies. He has successfully designed, led and developed large scale research and commercial projects. He holds a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from National Technical University of Athens and an MBA degree from Athens University of Economics and Business. His focus is to stay close to the cutting-edge technologies and to integrate them into real-world use cases, delivering the best of user experience.
Paul Verschure
Member of the Advisory Council
Dr. Paul F.M.J. Verschure is the Professor of Neuroengineering at the Donders Centre of Neuroscience at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, where he directs the Neurotechnology Laboratory. Paul has received his MA and Ph.D. in Psychology and pursued his research at different leading international institutes: The Neurosciences Institute and The Salk Institute, both in San Diego, the Univ. of Amsterdam, Univ. of Zurich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology-ETH, and University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.
Paul’s scientific aim is to develop a unified theory of mind and brain, to validate this theory using empirical and synthetic methods and by applying it to technologies that support and advance the human condition. His research spans Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual and Mixed Reality and the application areas of Digital Brain Health and Cultural Heritage.
SPECS comprises a multidisciplinary team of doctoral and post-doctoral researchers including psychologists, engineers and biologists which have widely published their results in leading journals. Paul co-chairs the annual Living Machines conference, the Donders/Barcelona Cognition, Brain and Technology summer school, and he hosts the Convergent Science Network podcast with over 120 episodes. Paul has started spin-off companies Eodyne Systems and Sapiens5 and chairs the Future Memory Foundation and the Convergent Science Network. Paul is an endurance athlete and has completed 15 Ironman races.
Jessica Gabriele Walter
Research
Jessica Gabriele Walter is postdoctoral researcher at the DATALAB, Center for Digital Social Research at Aarhus University. Here, she is part of research projects with a focus on online disinformation and predictors of social media behavior. She studied social sciences at University of Mannheim and the Indiana University in Bloomington until 2010 and obtained a PhD from University of Mannheim in 2018. From 2010 to 2020 she worked as pre- and later post-doctoral researcher at GESIS with a focus on survey methodology in the context of the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS). Her research focuses on exposure to and spread of information disorders in the EU, verified false content and its impact on society and collective behavior in social media.
Wout van Wijk
Member of the Advisory Council
Wout van Wijk is Executive Director at News Media Europe, representing over 2500 European news media brands in print and online, on radio and television. News Media Europe is committed to maintaining and promoting the freedom of the press, to upholding and enhancing the freedom to publish, and to championing the news brands underpinning democracy. Prior to this, Wout held the position of senior EU affairs manager at Huawei Technologies in their Brussels office, where he led their public outreach on Cyber Security and Data Privacy Protection. Wout also worked with the European Commission on Trust and Security related policy and research. He started his career as a Government Affairs manager for the trade association of Europe’s direct marketing industry, FEDMA where he worked on data protection and privacy issues. Wout holds an Msc in Communication Studies from the Twente University, The Netherlands and an MA in European Public Affairs from Maastricht University, The Netherlands.
Giovanni Zagni
Member of the Executive Board, Fact-checking Director
Giovanni Zagni, PhD, is the Director of the Italian fact-checking projects Pagella Politica and Facta.news. He was a member of the Monitoring Unit on Disinformation around Covid-19 established by the Italian government in 2020, and he is an Independent Expert in the MSI-INF Committee of Experts on the Integrity of Online Information established in 2022 by the Council of Europe. He has a long experience in online journalism and takes part frequently in conferences, lectures and events around fact-checking and disinformation in Italy and abroad. He is an alumnus of the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and holds a PhD in Romance philology from the University of Siena.