Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Tempo (Indonesia)

Yuli Ismartono is an expert in media issues and media training, government relations and community development. She is currently deputy chief editor of the English edition of TEMPO, a weekly news and current affairs magazine based in Jakarta, Indonesia. She is also managing editor of AsiaViews, a monthly supplemental magazine distributed by publications in the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).  Ms. Ismartono completed her undergraduate studies in political science at Delhi University in India and graduate studies in journalism at Syracuse University in New York. She is chairperson of the board of directors of TIFA Foundation, a nongovernmental organization in Jakarta supporting projects in the areas of media development, democracy, pluralism, access to justice and women’s empowerment. She is also a member of the advisory board of the New York-based Revenue Watch Institute and Altsean Burma, a Bangkok-based nongovernmental organization campaigning for a free and democratic Myanmar.

Journalist, Telemetro (Peru)

Laura Puertas is an economist and journalist and, for the past twenty years, has dedicated herself to human rights issues and the fight against corruption. Since 2002, she worked for Proética, Transparency International's chapter in Peru, as the Executive Director and at channel 4 as the news director. She is currently working for America TV. Puertas Meyer has also worked as a stringer for The New York Times and El Pais and for various Peruvian media in magazines, journals, radio and television programs.  In 1993, she founded, with other Peruvian journalists, the IPYS (Instituto Prensa y Sociedad), to promote investigative journalism in the Andean Region.

Editor in Chief, CEO, ProPublica (United States of the America)

Paul Steiger is the editor-in-chief, CEO and president of ProPublica. He worked for 15 years as a reporter, the Washington economics correspondent, and the business editor for the Los Angeles Times, and for 26 years as a reporter and editor for the Wall Street Journal. Steiger served as the managing editor of the Wall Street Journal from 1991 to 2007. During his tenure, members of the Journal’s newsroom staff were awarded 16 Pulitzer Prizes. In addition, ProPublica reporters received Pulitzer Prizes in May 2010 and 2011.
He is a member of the steering committee of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a trustee of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. From 1999 to 2007, he was a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board, serving as its chairman in his final year. For six years, from June 2005 to June 2011, Steiger was the chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists. Awards include the Columbia Journalism Award, the University of Missouri Honor Award for Distinguished Service in Journalism, the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism from Harvard University’s Joan Shorenstein Center, the Gerald Loeb Award for lifetime achievement from the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, the Dean’s Medal for Distinguished Leadership from Brandeis University, the Fourth Estate Award from the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., the National Press Foundation’s George Beveridge Editor of the Year Award, the Decade of Excellence Award from the World Leadership Forum in London, and the American Society of News Editors Leadership Award.

CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Boishakhai Television (Bangladesh)

Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul is the Editor-in-Chief & Chief Executive Officer of Boishakhi Television. His previous experiences include working for the country’s oldest newspaper - the Daily Sangbad, the Daily Jugantor, Ekushey Television -the country's first private terrestrial TV channel, and ATN Bangla -the country’s first satellite television channel. Over his three decades as a journalist, Bulbul has earned a number of awards and honors. Presently he is the International Press Institute (IPI)'s Vice Chair of Executive Board, Member of the Bangladesh Press Council, former member of the Open University of Bangladesh's Board of Directors, Director of the Press Institute of Bangladesh, and a member of the Dhaka University Senate. He is  also Executive Director of Media Watch (a Bangladeshi organisation defending press freedom) and a part time teacher in the Department of Mass Communication & Journalism at Dhaka University and at the American International University of Bangladesh (AIUB).

Journalist and Former OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (Hungary)
Mr Haraszti is a writer, journalist, human rights advocate and university professor. He was appointed the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media effective from 10 March 2004. In 1976 he co-founded the Hungarian Democratic Opposition Movement and in 1980 he became editor of the samizdat periodical Beszélő. In 1989, Haraszti participated in the "roundtable" negotiations on transition to free elections. After being member of the Hungarian Parliament from 1990–1994 he moved on to lecture on democratization and media politics at numerous universities. Haraszti's books include "A Worker in a Worker's State" and "The Velvet Prison", both of which have been translated into several languages.

Honarary Chairperson, Media Development Center (Bulgaria)
Ognian Zlatev is founder of the Media Development Center in Bulgaria and after managing it for the last 15 years, he is now Honarary chairman of the Center. Graduate of Sofia University, he attained additional qualifications, among others, in political communications, media relations, journalism and media development. Over the years he specialized and is a well-known expert in press freedom, media self-regulation and accountability and NGO development with field work in transitional and post-conflict countries of Western Balkans, Central Asia, Southern Caucasus region, Mongolia, Jordan on behalf of OSCE and UNESCO. Ognian Zlatev is a founding member of the South-East European Network for Professionalization of the Media (SEENPM) where he was president from 2002 to 2004. He served also as a member of the board of the South-East European Media Organization (SEEMO) and member of the Streering Committee of the Global Forum for Media Development.

Director-General-West Africa Panos Institute (Senegal)
Diane Senghor has been the Director of the Panos Institute of West Africa, an independent international institution, and a member of the Panos Institute Network, based in Dakar. Previously, she was the founder and director of the West Africa Program of the Panos Institute in Paris. Diana Senghor has also been Editor-in-Chief of a number of West African magazines, such as Family and Development, and Living in Another Way, as well as an Assistant in Anthropology at the Cheik Anta Diop University in Dakar. Diana Senghor holds a Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Paris I (Pantheon - Sorbonne), and is the author of numerous articles, as well as the coordinator of different publications.

Features writer, The Star (Kenya)

Fatuma Noor is an Investigative Writer with The Star Newspaper in Kenya. She has investigated and reported extensively on the ongoing civil war in Somalia. Fatuma has also done extensive reporting in the East African region. Prior to this she worked as a reporter for Kenya National Agency and as a news correspondent for The Star. Her investigative story on underage refugee girls brothel operating in Nairobi gained her international recognition winning the Forum for African Investigative Reporters Award (FAIR) in 2009. In 2010 she was awarded Features Writer of the Year by Radio Africa Group Limited and David Astor Journalism Fellow the same year. In 2011 she was awarded the CNN print journalist of the year and African Journalist of the year 2011 for her investigative series on recruitment of the Al Shabaab group in Somalia. Fatuma has also worked with some of the worlds leading newspapers in the United Kingdom, the Guardian, The Independent and The Scotsman in Scotland She has a BA in Communication and a Diploma in Mass Communications.

Founder and Executive Director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (Egypt)

He is founder and executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, the Arab world's leading organization providing original research, legal aid, and technical, networking, and strategic support for the defense of freedom of opinion, expression, and belief. A graduate of `Ain Shams University College of Law, Eid has been lead defense lawyer in many of Egypt's most important human rights cases, and writes and speaks regularly on international human rights and freedom of expression developments. He is also an experienced trainer on human rights research, monitoring, and legal aid, and issues relating to the use of the internet in defense of human rights.

Journalist, Le Nouvel Observateur (France)

She is a French journalist, who worked as a senior reporter until 2006 for the French newspaper Libération, then for the weekly review Le Nouvel Observateur. She was taken hostage on January 5, 2005, in Iraq along with her translator Hussein Hanoun Al-Saadi. In 2009, she has been elected head of the International Observatory on Prisons (OIP).