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You are here:
  1. Freedom of Expression
  2. Events
  3. Public Service Media for Democracy
  4. Biographies (Public Service Media for Democracy)
  5. Biographies - Panel 3

Biographies - Panel 3

HOW TO ENSURE A RENEWED COMMITMENT FOR PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIA AND A BETTER PROTECTION OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: THE WAY FORWARD

Klaus Unterberger

Klaus Unterberger

ORF (Austria)

Klaus Unterberger is Head of the “Public Value Department” at ORF, focusing on its Public Service mission and remit, in charge of substantial elements of ORF’s quality control system, including a yearly Public Value Report, audience and expert panels, relevant scientific research, internal and external communications and international cooperation. As host of ORF TV program “Dialogforum” he is focusing on the public debate of quality journalism of Public Service Media. He is one of initiators of the international Public Service Internet Manifesto.

Representing its management Dr. Unterberger is member of the “Board of Ethics” of ORF. He is producing TV documentaries including "Vision Possible – Future of Europe", recently “Reality Check Democracy”.

Mr. Unterberger holds a Doctor of Political Science degree of the University of Vienna, where he also had a lectureship from 1995-2007.

Mr. Unterberger is working in close cooperation with EBU on different projects, including the EBU declaration “Empowering Society - The Core Values of PSM”.

Renate Nikolay

Renate Nikolay

Head of Vice-President Věra Jourová’s Cabinet, European Commission

Renate Nikolay is now Head of Cabinet of Vĕra Jourová, Vice-President for Values and Transparency working on matters such as rule of law or disinformation.  In October 2019 she became Director in charge of Asia and Latin America in DG Trade. From 2014 to 2019, she was Head of Cabinet of Vĕra Jourová, Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality where she played a key role in the adoption of the data protection reform and the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor and the Code of Conduct with platforms on online hate speech. Between 2011 and 2014 she led the Unit of interinstitutional and international relations in DG Justice dealing with legislative files and international negotiations such as the ones on data protection with the US. Prior to that she was advisor in the Cabinet of the first High Representative / Vice President Cathy Ashton where she led on the relations with the European Parliament in setting up the European External Action Service and on relations with Asia, in particular China. From 2004-2009 she was member of the Cabinet of the Trade Commissioners Peter Mandelson and Baroness Cathy Ashton where she was part of the negotiating team in the trade talks in the multilateral trade round of the World Trade Organisation (the Doha Round) and the EU-South Korea Free Trade Agreement which was finalised in 2009. She started her career in the European Commission in the Directorate General for Trade in November 2003 dealing with the accession negotiations of Vietnam to the World Trade Organisation and the Trade Policy Committee with the Member States. Prior to that she was a diplomat in the German Permanent Representation in Brussels and worked as private Secretary to the German G8 Sherpa in the German Ministry of Economics. She holds a law degree (Erstes und Zweites Staatsexamen) from the Free University in Berlin and a master as a Fulbright Scholar in Washington DC. She was also an Erasmus Scholar in France/Grenoble.

Jean-Paul Philippot

Jean-Paul Philippot

Director General of RTBF

A graduate of the Solvay Business School (Université libre de Bruxelles), Jean-Paul Philippot began his career as a consultant before quickly moving into the political sphere and becoming Director of Cabinet for the Brussels Minister President, Charles Piqué. In 1997 he joined the Brussels public hospitals (IRIS) as managing director.

In 2002, he entered the audiovisual world as a general administrator. In 2018, he launched a plan for the profound transformation of the French-speaking public media to switch from an organisation in silos (by media) to an audience-oriented organisation. The RTBF'27 strategy reinforces this trajectory to be as close as possible to the evolution of civil society.

He was also President of the EBU, the European Broadcasting Union, from 2009 to 2018 and has been President of the Association of French-speaking Public Media since 28 January 2021.

Heike Raab

Heike Raab

Secretary of State of the Land Rhineland-Palatinate

Born April 8th 1965 in Cochem, 2 children

1984 Abitur (school leaving exemaniation)

1984 - 1987 Education physiotherapist, RWTH Aachen

1988 - 1992 Studies of political science, law and Spanish

1992 - 1993 Research Associate (German Bundestag)

1993 - 1994 Consultant in the State Chancellery of Rhineland-Palatinate, Office of the Prime Minister

1993 - 1998 Consultant of the SPD parliamentary group

1999 - 2001 Head of Unit in the State Chancellery

2001 - 2011 Member of Parliament (Landtag Rhineland-Palatinate)

2006 - 2011 General Secretary of the SPD Rhineland-Palatinate

2011 - 2015 State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior, for Sports and Infrastructure

2015 - 2021 State Secretary as representative of the state at the federal level, for Europe, for Media and Digitalization

Since 2021 State Secretary as representative of the state at the federal level, for Europe and for Media

Timo Huovinen

Timo Huovinen

Chief of Journalistic Standards and Ethics and Ombudsman, YLE, Finland

Head of Journalistic Standards and Ethics since 2017. Journalist in Finnish Broadcasting Company since 1992. Producer of several programs since 1998.

Education: Master of Laws; Master of Arts

Age: 59

Monika Garbaciauskaite-Budriene

Monika Garbaciauskaite-Budriene

Director General of LRT

Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė is the Director General of the Lithuanian Public Service Broadcaster and a member of the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) Executive Board 2021-2022. She is also a member of the EBU Audit Committee and a Liaison of the Executive Board to the EBU News Committee.

Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė has more than 25 years of journalistic experience, working for Lithuanian regional and national media outlets, also with the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. For almost 17 years she worked as editor-in-chief and columnist at the largest Lithuanian digital news platform DELFI.lt. In 2018, Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė was appointed LRT Director General through a public competition process.

Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė is a graduate of Vilnius University and has a master’s degree in international communication.

Patrick Große

Patrick Große

Head of Content ENTR, Deutsche Welle

Patrick Große is Head of Content in the pan-European media project ENTR led by Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW). 

He steers an International Editorial Team of journalists from five European countries. The project produces Social Media content for young people on Europe on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and TikTok.

Patrick started his career as a news journalist for DW’s digital services. 

His academic background includes a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism and Political Science and a journalistic traineeship at Deutsche Welle.

Urška Umek

Urška Umek

Head of Media Unit, Information Society Department, Council of Europe

Urška Umek is Head of Media Unit at the Council of Europe’s Information Society Department, responsible for developing standards in the area of freedom of expression and media freedom in the digital public sphere. She previously worked as a lawyer at the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights (2012 - 2016) and lawyer-linguist at the Court of Justice of the European Union (2008), after starting her career as a legal adviser at the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, where she also headed the Research and International Cooperation Department from 2009 until 2012. She contributed, among others, to the Commentary to the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia and a publication on the reforms of constitutional justice in Slovenia.

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