Audrius Perkauskas is deputy head of unit “Audiovisual and Media Services Policy” at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (CONNECT). During his 17 years at the Commission and DG Connect, Audrius Perkauskas has acquired the experience of policy-making and regulation in several areas of digital economy and society: telecoms, data economy and media – copyright, audiovisual regulation, media freedom and pluralism, media literacy. Before joining the European Commission, Audrius Perkauskas worked as a lawyer, lecturer at Vilnius University and advisor to the President of the Republic of Lithuania. Audrius Perkauskas studied law at Vilnius University (LLM, PhD) and the University of Cambridge (LLM).

Eva Simon is a senior advocacy officer at the Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties). Liberties is a Berlin-based EU watchdog organization. Eva works on issues related to the field of freedom of expression and data protection. She is a human rights lawyer with a special focus on digital rights. Besides her EU-level advocacy work, Eva works on strategic litigation across EU member states. She has been active in human rights work for more than fifteen years. Prior to joining the NGO world, Eva worked as a media lawyer and a researcher. She was a research fellow at the Central European University (2006), at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, New York, USA (2005) and at the Technical University of Budapest, Hungary (2001-2005). She has authored expert studies, book chapters and articles on privacy and media freedom.

Renate Schroeder is the Director of the European Federation of Journalists. In 1993 she joined the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and since 2003 she works for the EFJ. Advocacy at EU and Council of Europe level; presentation of EFJ at international meetings, fact-finding media freedom missions; member of juries of journalistic prizes, project work and advisor of several EFJ expert groups on freelancers,   media literacy and digital journalism, cover her work-load in the small dynamic Brussels office. Renate Schroeder studied International Relations and Political Science at Boston University (Bachelor’s Degree in 1988) and in Berlin at the Free University (Masters in 1992). She worked at the United Nations, New York, the research institute FAST in Berlin and the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation in Brussels before she joined the EFJ.  She is of German nationality and speaks English, French, Italian, German and Spanish (passive)

Dr. Joan Barata is a Fellow at the Cyber Policy Center of Stanford University. He works on freedom of expression, media and communications regulation, and intermediary liability issues. Dr. Barata teaches at various universities in different parts of the world and has published many articles and books on these subjects, both in academic and popular press. His work has taken him to most regions of the world, and he is regularly involved in projects with international organizations such as UNESCO, the Council of Europe, the Organization of American States, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, where he was the principal advisor to the Representative on Media Freedom. Dr. Barata also has experience as a regulator, as he held the position of Secretary General of the Audiovisual Council of Catalonia in Spain and was member of the Permanent Secretariat of the Mediterranean Network of Regulatory Authorities.