RAZA RUMI AHMAD. Pakistani policy analyst, journalist, and author. Director of Park Center for Independent Media, Ithaca College (New York) where he teaches in the journalism department. Originally from Pakistan where he has reported for the Daily Times and The Friday Times. Raza is also Visiting Faculty at Cornell Institute for Public Affairs and has been a fellow at the New America Foundation, United States Institute of Peace and the National Endowment for Democracy. He is a member of the think tank at Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, Georgetown University; and a nonresident fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs.
AVRAM ANDERSON. Collection Management Librarian in the University Library at California State University, Northridge. A member and advocate of the LGBTQI+ community researching LGBTQI+ censorship, in print and online. Recent publications include “Queer Erasure” in the Spring 2020 issue of Index on Censorship; “Stonewalled: Establishment Media’s Silence on the Trump Administration’s Crusade against LGBTQ People,” featured in Censored 2020; “The Corporate Media Failed to Warn Us About the Trump Admin’s Attack on LGBTQ Workers” (In These Times), and “Corporate Media Biases Threaten the Passage of Landmark LGBTQ Protections” (Truthout).
MINE GENCEL BEK, PhD, works as a researcher and co-Principal Investigator at the University of Siegen. She completed her PhD at Loughborough University in 1999 and was a visiting lecturer at MIT Comparative Media Studies, Open Documentary Lab and Civic Media Lab in 2013 and 2014. Her academic life started in Ankara University in 1991 as a research assistant. She was dismissed from her position as a professor at the Department of Journalism, Faculty of Communication, Ankara University, Turkey, with the decree in February 2017 for signing the petition for peace. She also teaches at both undergraduate and postgraduate programs of the Media Studies department at the University of Siegen.
LISA BROOTEN, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the College of Arts and Media at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, USA. Her research and publications focus on human rights and media, media reform and democratization, social movement media, community and indigenous media. Her regional expertise is in Southeast Asia, especially Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand, where she has travelled and conducted fieldwork for many years, including a Fulbright Research Fellowship in 2007-2008, and an ASEAN Fulbright Research Fellowship in 2021-2022. She has been a member of the Fulbright Specialist Roster for Myanmar, Thailand and the Philippines, and has consulted for Freedom House, Radio Free Asia Burmese Service and PEN American Center. She is an associate editor of Media Asia and lead editor of Myanmar Media in Transition: Legacies, Challenges and Change (ISEAS, 2019).
YOSUKE BUCHMEIER is a Research Associate at the Japan Center of Munich University (LMU). After his graduation in Japanese Studies, Communication Sciences, and Sociology at LMU he worked for a few years in East Asia, with Tokyo as his base. Back in Germany since 2020, he has returned to academia and is now focusing on media, journalism, and politics in Japan, particularly on the role of public broadcasting. His studies on “agenda-cutting” have been published in Journalism Studies and Media, Culture & Society.
CAROLYN M. BYERLY, PhD, is Professor Emerita and former chair of the Dept. of Communication, Culture & Media Studies at Howard University, a historically Black university. Her books include The Palgrave International Handbook of Women and Journalism (Palgrave, 2013) and Women and Media: A Critical Introduction (Blackwell, 2006). She was the principal investigator of the Global Report on the Status of Women in News Media for the International Women’s Media Foundation (2011). She was the 2023 recipient of the Teresa Award for feminist communication scholarship from the International Communication Association.
BRIAN COVERT is a journalist, author, and educator based in Japan. Worked as staff reporter and editor for newspapers both in the United States and Japan, and as contributing writer to Japanese and overseas newspapers and magazines. Contributing author to past Censored editions published by Project Censored. Teaches journalism in the social studies faculty of Doshisha University in Kyoto.
AMY FORBES, PhD is Associate Professor of Humanities (Communication and Journalism) at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia. She is a Fulbright scholar, and completed a Master of Media Studies from the New School for Social Research. She worked as a television producer and editor of award-winning public affairs programs such as Nightline: Manila hosted by renowned anti-Marcos journalist Ninez Cacho-Olivares. Amy is also co-founder and co-publisher of Balitang Kababayan, the Philippines’ first online daily newspaper, and was a columnist for the Daily Tribune at its inception. She is the author of Interviewing A Guide for Journalists and Professional Writers (with G. Sedorkin, 2023).
HEKTOR HAARKÖTTER, Dr., is Professor of Communication Science with focus on Political Communication at the University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg. Before his re-entry in the academic field he worked as a journalist and TV-director for different public broadcast companies in Germany and France. He authored several books on media studies and has won a couple of prizes for his media works and publications. Head of the Board of the Initiative News Enlightenment and host of an annual conference “Kölner Forum für Journalismuskritik” [Cologne Forum on journalism criticism] together with Deutschlandfunk, a well-known public radio station.
ROBERT HACKETT, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Communication, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. Co-founder of NewsWatch Canada (1993), Media Democracy Days (2001), and OpenMedia.ca (2007). Publications include Remaking Media: The Struggle to Democratize Public Communication (with W.K. Carroll, 2006) and Journalism and Climate Crisis: Public Engagement, Media Alternatives (with S. Forde, S. Gunster, and K. Foxwell-Norton, 2017). He writes for nationalobserver.com, rabble.ca and other media.
MICKEY HUFF is Director of Project Censored; President of the Media Freedom Foundation; and Professor of Social Science, History, and Journalism at Diablo Valley College in CA. Huff chairs the Journalism Program and the History Area. He is co-author of numerous books on media, propaganda, and censorship including United States of Distraction (City Lights), the critical thinking textbook Let’s Agree to Disagree (Routledge), The Media and Me: A Guide to Critical Media Literacy for Young People (Censored Press/Triangle Square), and the co-editor of Project Censored’s annual State of the Free Press books published by The Censored Press/Seven Stories Press (14 volumes to date).
NICHOLAS JOHNSON, PhD, is the author of How to Talk Back to Your Television Set (1970); nine more, including Columns of Democracy (2018) and What Do You Mean and How Do You Know? (2009). Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission (1966–1973); University of Iowa College of Law (1981-2014, media law and cyberlaw). More at http://www.nicholasjohnson.org/.
RACHAEL JOLLEY is a research fellow at the Centre for Freedom of the Media, Sheffield University; a Journalism Safety Research Network member; a lecturer in journalism at Cardiff University and a former editor-in-chief at Index on Censorship as well as an award-winning journalist. She has written extensively on freedom of the media, politics, and international affairs.
FILIZ KALMUK is a Research associate at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences and lecturer for communication science research projects (including media journalism in Germany, agenda cutting in German media, objectivity in journalism). PhD Fellow for her dissertation project “Agenda Cutting – a communication science and media ethics investigation of the dethematization of news”.
MILES KENYON is a digital rights researcher affiliated with Citizen Lab. Expertise in surveillance, information controls, and governance of LGBTIQ2S+ populations. Recent publications include “No Access: LGBTIQ Website Censorship in Six Countries” and “The Predator in Your Pocket: A Multidisciplinary Assessment of the Stalkerware Application Industry.”
AMMINA KOTHARI, PhD, is the director of the Harrington School of Communication and Media and a professor in Journalism, University of Rhode Island. Before joining the University of Rhode Island, Kothari was an associate professor of communication and the Graduate Program Director of Communication MS in the School of Communication at Rochester Institute of Technology. She was born and raised in Tanzania. Her specialties include AI and news, health communication and media in Africa.
KEVAL J. KUMAR, PhD, is an Adjunct Professor at Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA) and Visiting Faculty at IIM, Indore, and FLAME University, Pune. He is a former Director, Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication (SIMC), and a former Reader and Chair, Department of Communication and Journalism, University of Pune. Visiting positions at the universities of Siegen and Jacobs University Bremen, Germany, Ohio State University, United States and BTI in Bahrain. He is the author of Mass Communication in India (Jaico Books), and Media Education, Communication and Public Policy (Himalaya) and co-author of Environmentalism and the Mass Media: The North-South Divide (Routledge) and contributor to The International Encyclopaedia of Media Effects (Wiley), International Encyclopaedia of Media Literacy (Wiley)and several edited books. He is a former Chair of the Media Education Research Section, International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR).
ANTONIO LÓPEZ, PhD, is a researcher focusing on bridging ecojustice with media education, and a founding theorist and architect of ecomedia literacy. He is the author of Ecomedia Literacy: Integrating Ecology into Media Education; Greening Media Education: Bridging Media Literacy with Green Cultural Citizenship; The Media Ecosystem: What Ecology Can Teach Us About Responsible Media Practice; and Mediacology: A Multicultural Approach to Media Literacy in the 21st Century. Currently he is Professor of Communications and Media Studies at John Cabot University in Rome, Italy. Resources and writing are available at: https://antonio-lopez.com/.
PETER LUDES, Dr., Visiting Positions in Sociology at the Universities of Newfoundland and Amsterdam; Professor of Culture and Media Science at the University of Siegen (Germany) and Visiting Positions at Harvard, Mannheim and Constance; Professor of Mass Communication, Jacobs University, Bremen, 2002–2017. Visiting Research Professor in Comparative Cultures at the University of Cologne, since 2018. Founder of the German Initiative on News Enlightenment (1997) at the University of Siegen. Recent publications on brutalization and banalization (2018) and collective myths and decivilizing processes (2020, with Stefan Kramer).
STEVE MACEK, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at North Central College in Illinois. A frequent contributor to Project Censored’s yearbooks, he is also the author of Urban Nightmares: The Media, the Right and the Moral Panic over the City (University of Minnesota Press, 2006) and co-editor of Marxism and Communication Studies: The Point is to Change It (Peter Lang, 2006). He is currently working on a co-edited volume about digital censorship and the global crackdown on freedom of expression that will be published next year by Peter Lang.
CONCHA MATEOS, Dr., is a Senior Lecturer in Visual Studies, Department of Communication Sciences, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain. Journalist for radio, television, and political organizations in Spain and Latin America. Academic researcher and activist. Coordinator for Project Censored research in Europe and Latin America.
DANIEL MÜLLER, Dr., is the Head of the Postgraduate Academy at the University of Siegen (Germany). He has worked as a researcher and educator in journalism/mass communication studies (Dortmund) and history (Bochum) at public universities for many years, and published extensively on media history, media-minority relations in Germany, and the nationality policies and ethnic relations of the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet successor states, particularly the Caucasus. He is a jury member of the German Initiative on News Enlightenment and for Project Censored.
JÖRG-UWE NIELAND, Dr., Senior Scientist, University of Klagenfurt, Austria, Department of Media & Communications. Since 2016 associate at the Institute for European Sport Development and Leisure Research at the German Sport University Cologne; since 2014 co-leader and head of the group “Media Sports and Sports Communication”; board member of the Initiative News Enlightenment. Numerous publications in political and communication science as well as sport studies. Research fellow at several universities and in highly prestigious empirical research projects funded by the German national science foundation.
MARLENE NUNNENDORF. Science communication officer at the University Hospital of Cologne, responsible for communications in two major projects on COVID-19 research, previously worked as a radio reporter. She has been a board member of the Initiative News Enlightenment since 2017, coordinator of the annual “Cologne Forum for Journalism Criticism” and the dissemination of the “Top 10 of the neglected news”. She worked for several years as an intercultural consultant for a global relocation agency.
ANDY LEE ROTH, PhD, is the Associate Director of Project Censored. Coordinator of the Project’s Campus Affiliates Program, a news media research network of several hundred students and faculty at two dozen colleges and universities across North America. Coeditor of the Project’s yearbook series, State of the Free Press, and coauthor of The Media and Me, a guide to critical media literacy for young people. Publications in Index on Censorship, In These Times, YES! Magazine, Media, Culture & Society, and the International Journal of Press/Politics, among others. PhD in Sociology from University of California, Los Angeles.
CAJA THIMM, Dr., is Professor of Media Studies and Intermediality at the University of Bonn since 2001, where she heads the Media Studies Department. For many years, she has been conducting research on online media, especially on questions of social networks such as Facebook or Twitter, on mobile communication, and on digital democracy. She received numerous prestigious research grants for her work, is the editor of the series “Bonner Beiträge zur Medienwissenschaft” (Lang Verlag) and “Bonner Beiträge zur Onlineforschung” (Lit Verlag). Since 2016, she has been the chair of the “Mediatization” section of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA).
TANJA THOMAS, Dr., is Professor of media studies with a focus on transformations of media culture at the Eberhard-Karls-University in Tübingen. Throughout her carrier, she has worked extensively on socially relevant issues in the field of media and communication studies including racism and sexism, political protest in Germany and Israel as well as questions of collective memories in and through media. She was also acting as the director of a graduate school right- wing populism and exclusionary solidarity (2019-2022). With two other colleagues, she successfully applied for the establishment of a research center on right-wing extremism at her home institution in 2023. She is one of the editors of the interdisciplinary academic journal Feminist Studies (Feministische Studien) as well as co-editor of the book series Critical Studies in Media and Communication Studies of transcript Verlag.