sorted alphabetically – to be completed  

 

Ouboulè Abalo is Fondation Hirondelle’s Representative in the Central African Republic since September 2021. He is a lawyer and graduate of the Ecole Nationale d’Administration du Bénin. He specialises in protection and human rights issues and has over 20 years of field experience in humanitarian and development contexts. He has coordinated numerous programmes (governance, health, justice, access to rights, child protection, sexual and gender-based violence, among others) in West and Central Africa. Before joining Fondation Hirondelle, Ouboulè Abalo held positions as national delegate, field coordinator, head of antenna, head of mission, country director within organisations such as Planète Urgence, RCN Justice & Démocratie, Action Contre la Faim, Médecins du Monde Belgium, Avocats Sans Frontières, etc. This career path has enabled him to acquire a variety of technical and managerial skills that have been strengthened over the years.

 

 

Nube Alvarez Sagahon is a journalist and Project Manager at Reporters Without Borders (RSF), where she coordinates since 2020 the Defending Voices Program for Mexico and Brazil. The program works to strengthen protection mechanisms, promote safer working environments for journalists, and combat impunity for crimes committed against media professionals.

 

Hazrat Bahar (Dr. phil.) is a co-founder and board member of Afghanistan Media Support Organization (AMSO) and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Communication and Media Studies at Leipzig University. His research interests include the impact of (social) media, media systems, media in fragile states, media assistance, and political communication, with a particular focus on Afghanistan. Currently, he has been studying the Afghan media system for the past two decades. His research has been published in journals such as Media Asia, Cross-Culture Communication, and Global Media Journal-German Edition. Recent publication co-authored with Dr. Anja Wellenberg, 1) “Priorities Were Chosen by Donors” – A Critical Review of International Media Assistance in Afghanistan (2001-2021) by Global Media Journal (2025), and 2) China’s Public Diplomacy in Afghanistan: The Role of Media by CSEP (2025).

 

Mark Aljen Binocal is an academic specializing in Development Communication and the Sustainable Development Goals. He heads the Radio and Communications Unit at Davao Oriental State University and serves as Vice President for Davao of the Media Educators of Mindanao. Since 2020, he has been cooperating with IDEM on projects aimed at decolonizing news, placing Indigenous people at the centre of media creation, integrating Indigenous perspectives on climate change, and promoting peace and conflict-sensitive journalism and communication in Mindanao.

 

Clare Cook heads up journalism and media viability at International Media Support, one of the largest media development organisations globally. She’s an award-winning journalist with more than two decades’ experience in journalism and innovation. She’s currently leading a global initiative to Unlock Local Capital and coordinating multiple prototypes globally to unlock new funding financing and investment in journalism. She founded the Media Innovation Studio in the UK and pioneered many action research projects to find new ways of monetising journalism. Her doctoral thesis focuses on the sustainability of web natives. Clare has published extensively on journalism revenue models in fragile contexts in her role as senior lecturer at the University of Lancashire. 

 

Peter Erdelyi is the founding director of the Center for Sustainable Media. He is a media executive from Budapest, Hungary, with over 25 years of experience in journalism and media management. He consults for the Media Development Investment Fund and teaches digital media strategy at ELTE University in Budapest. As a Fellow at the Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford, he researched digital audience revenue strategies in countries where the media environment is under pressure. Over the past two decades, he has been involved in launching and running various digital outlets in Hungary and has served on the Executive Board of the European Digital Media Observatory. He holds an MSc from the London School of Economics. 

 

Amani Ibrahim brings nearly two decades of frontline humanitarian experience to our panel. With a PhD in psychology and a background in addiction therapy, she spent 19 years with UNHCR, serving in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan, Niger, Burundi, and Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp. Her work has taken her from desert outposts to border crossings, supporting refugees, irregular migrants as well victims of human trafficking and organ trade. As Protection Officer and acting head of the Kakuma Sub-Office, she led efforts in one of the world’s largest refugee settlements. Amani speaks not on behalf of UNHCR, but from her personal journey as a humanitarian. She believes deeply in the power of information—when stories are told well, support follows. 

 

Bärbel Kofler (SPD) has served as Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) since 2021. From 2016 to 2021, she was the Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Assistance at the Federal Foreign Office. She has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2004 and served as Chair of the German-Ukrainian Parliamentary Group from 2005 to 2013. From 1999 to 2001, she worked as a DAAD lecturer in Moscow. In her dissertation, she focused on language policy in the Soviet Union.

 

 

Gilles Marchand recently founded “Legitima”, a consultancy specializing in legitimacy (www.legitima.ch), which works in particular with the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) on issues related to the defense of public service media. He is also Director of the “Media Philanthropy Initiative” at the University of Geneva (www.unige.ch).

Gilles Marchand served as Director General of SRG SSR (www.srgssr.ch), the Swiss public broadcasting service, from 2017 until the end of 2024. Previously, he was Director of TSR (Télévision Suisse Romande) from 2001 to 2009. In 2010, he became head of RTS (Radio Télévision Suisse) after merging French-speaking Swiss radio and television into a single entity (www.rts.ch). Gilles Marchand has also held various positions on boards and within institutions such as TV5 Monde, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), and the University of Geneva. He also served on the Swiss Federal Media Commission from 2013 to 2017. He began his professional career in 1985 in book publishing, then joined La Tribune de Genève, and later the Ringier Romandie press group in 1992, where he became Managing Director from 1998 to 2001. From 1990 to 2000, Gilles Marchand was very active within the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) in Paris, where he managed numerous training programs for independent publishers in Africa and Eastern Europe. Gilles Marchand was born in Lausanne in 1962. He holds a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Geneva.

 

 

Michael Markovitz is an adjunct faculty member at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) in Johannesburg and Director of the GIBS Media Leadership Think Tank (MLTT) — an independent research and advocacy platform advancing solutions for African media in support of democracy. As Faculty Lead, he co-designed and launched the inaugural Executive Programme in Media Leadership at GIBS in 2025. In the same year, the MLTT co-hosted CTRL+J Africa at GIBS as part of a tri-continental conference series with partners in Brazil and Indonesia. Recognised as one of South Africa’s leading experts on media and tech policy, Michael was named among the top 50 alumni of Rhodes University’s School of Journalism and Media Studies in its first 50 years. In 2023, he convened a landmark global conference at GIBS that adopted Big Tech and Journalism: Principles for Fair Compensation, endorsed by 101 signatories from 28 countries. He has held senior roles in both the public and private sectors, including a five-year term as a board member of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

 

 

Douglas Mutumba is a founder and Managing Director of East African Radio Services (EARS) – an agency that iy EARS is aggregating independent radio stations into national and regional packages thus providing simplified access to large international corporates as advertising clients. Before joining EARS, Douglas worked with the Uganda Radio Network for 8 years as Network Manager in charge for client relations with the numerous members of the URN. With over 30 years of experience in media development in Uganda and the region, Douglas has a strong background in media strategy, development and implementation of countrywide impactful communication projects. Douglas is passionate about driving growth of the radio industry and data-driven decision-making.  

 

Hamid Obaidi is a researcher at Leipzig University, where he focuses on journalistic culture in conflict zones. He is also the Founder and executive director of the Afghanistan Media Support Organisation (AMSO), advocating for press freedom and the safety of journalists. With a postgraduate degree in journalism and communication from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Hamid has over a decade of experience in journalism, academia, and media relations. He worked as an assistant professor of journalism at Kabul University for more than ten academic years. Notably, some of his works have been published in international journals.

 

Melanie Radue is fellow to the Chair of Development Policy at the University of Passau and works on topics of international communication with a specification in de-westernization. She completed her doctorate at the Friedrich-Alexander University on the topic of “Media Systems in Non-Western Contexts. Freedom of the Media in Southeast Asia”. Accordingly, her research interest is in media freedom, comparative media systems and social movements. Melanie focuses on “cosmopolitical communication science” and devotes herself to the question of how to decolonize minds and actions in academia and in the aid industry. Beyond Melanie´s academic work she is engaged in the design, implementation, and management of media assistance projects. 

 

 

Leticia Kleim is the Legal Coordinator of Abraji, where she leads projects such as the Legal Protection Program for Journalists and the Judicial Harassment Monitor. A lawyer and geographer trained at the University of São Paulo, she has previously worked at institutions committed to advancing human rights and guarantees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maryia Sadouskaya-Komlach is a Global Engagement Strategist at Free Press Unlimited in Amsterdam, with a thematic focus, among others, on media viability and media in exile, particularly in Eastern Europe. Her work centers on building cross-border coalitions and strategic partnerships, as well as mobilizing resources and coordinating international support for media. She has more than 20 years of experience in journalism and media NGOs.

 

Carsten von Nahmen was DW Akademie’s Managing Director from 2018 to 2025. He studied Journalism and History in Dortmund, and joined Deutsche Welle in 1992 as a trainee. Afterwards, he worked as a freelance reporter and political correspondent for DW and other media. In 2004, he joined DW Akademie, where he was responsible for media development in various regions before returning to Deutsche Welle as Head of News and Deputy Editor-in-Chief in 2014, and as senior correspondent in Washington in 2017.

 

 

Ivana Bjelic Vucinic is the Director of the International Media Policy and Advisory Centre (IMPACT) at the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD), where she leads programmes on evidence-based media policy, research, and strategic initiatives. IMPACT brings together media support organisations, donors, academics, and governance experts to improve data-driven decision-making across the sector. Ivana has led projects on data collection, mapping, research, and monitoring to strengthen journalism and media support worldwide. Previously, she managed media law and associations programs at IREX Serbia and led projects at Media Centre Belgrade. She holds a BA in Journalism and an MA in Communication Studies. 

 

Anja Wollenberg (Dr. phil.) is Head of Research at MiCT, a Berlin-based media assistance organization primarily active in the Middle East and North Africa but also in West Africa, East Africa, Eastern Europe and South-Central Asia. Her research focuses on media pluralism in fragile contexts and the role of media in conflict and conflict prevention. She has published extensively on media development in Iraq and Libya, particularly in relation to conflict dynamics such as polarization, hate speech, and media partisanship in these countries. Currently Anja is conducting a media system analysis in Syria. Anja Wollenberg is a co-founder and shareholder of MiCT. She also teaches in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Erfurt. 

Moderation

Edith Kimani is a renowned Kenyan journalist and television presenter, celebrated for her compelling storytelling, sharp news judgment, and engaging on-screen presence. She currently hosts Deutsche Welle’s award-winning African flagship programme The 77 Percent, where she amplifies the voices, challenges, and aspirations of Africa’s youth.

Before joining DW, Edith was a news anchor at Kenya Television Network (KTN), where she gained recognition for her human-interest reporting across the country. She is also an experienced moderator and global media voice, having led high-level conversations at forums including the World Economic Forum, the G20 Summit, the WTO, and the Africa-EU Energy Partnership Summit.

A passionate climate advocate, Edith has reported on global warming from the Arctic and continues to champion environmental awareness. She is a CNN Journalism Fellow and was named among Africa’s Top 100 Most Influential Young People. In 2025, she was selected as a Yale Emerging Climate Leaders Fellow, further cementing her role as a powerful voice shaping Africa’s narrative on the global stage.