Category: Speaker

Saranda Ramaj has been working at newspaper Koha Ditore since 2013. Her coverage includes public procurement, the justice system, and corruption in healthcare. Saranda systematically develops complex research in these fields unveiling irregularities, corruption and organised crime. With her stories, she also has prevented the signing of illegal tenders worth millions which were mainly policy-related businesses. In her nine years as a journalist, she has been awarded 14 prizes for investigative journalism.

Twitter: @saranda_ramaj

Jörg Wojahn is the Head of Representation of the European Commission in Berlin, Germany since September 2019. Formerly the Head of the European Commission’s Representation in Austria, Wojahn is a highly experienced professional in the area of communications and diplomacy.

Mr Wojahn holds a PhD in Public International Law from the University of Kiel, Germany. He obtained his law degree from the University of Passau in Germany and also studied at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. After spending a few years at the Court of Appeal in Baden Baden in Germany, he chose to pursue a career in journalism and communications and became Der Standard’s EU and NATO correspondent and foreign affairs reporter in Vienna and then in Brussels.

Mr Wojahn joined the European Commission in 2004, when he became the spokesperson of the European Anti-Fraud Office. In 2010, he moved to the EU Delegation for Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain in Riyadh, serving as Counsellor for Trade Affairs in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. He took up the role of Head of the European Commission’s Representation in Vienna in September 2015.

Twitter: @JorgWojahn

Jelena Prtoric is a freelance journalist who has reported for a wide variety of publications in English, French, Italian, and her native Croatian. Her work has focused on gender and human rights, migration, the environment/climate, culture and social movements, through an investigative and (often) cross-border lens. As of 2020, Jelena has been the Arena Climate Network coordinator for Arena for Journalism in Europe, a non-profit organisation. She is also an occasional podcaster and translator of graphic novels. In 2022, Jelena is a Bertha Challenge Fellow and is working on in-depth research into the quality of water in Europe, focusing on agricultural pollution of water bodies.

Lars Boering is the director of the European Journalism Centre, an independent European non-profit working to support, strengthen, and develop journalism. In previous roles he has been actively involved with journalism, photography, and art. He was the managing director of the Amsterdam Art Foundation. In 2008 became an independent advisor and entrepreneur. As managing director of the Dutch Photographers’ Association, from 2010 to 2014, Lars advised photojournalists on copyright issues and entrepreneurial skills. As of 2015 he led the World Press Photo Foundation and has transformed it into an organisation that is more than a contest, becoming a global platform connecting professionals and audiences through trustworthy visual journalism, and storytelling. He has taught at academies throughout the world and been involved as advisor for festivals, contests, and other institutions. He is an experienced keynote speaker and moderator who believes lifelong learning is a necessity and a joy.

Twitter: @larsboering

Giacomo Zandonini is a Swiss-Italian journalist whose work explores mobility, identities, and European policies in the Mediterranean and West Africa. He contributed to investigations on human rights violations, surveillance programmes, corruption and diversion of public funds. He’s a member of Fada Collective and takes part in Lighthouse Reports’ migration and surveillance newsrooms.

Twitter: @giacomo_zando

Scott Griffen joined International Press Institute in 2012 as a press freedom adviser focusing on Latin America and the Caribbean. Currently, as the deputy director, he helps manage IPI’s long-term project work and press freedom advocacy and oversees IPI’s external and internal communications. He holds a bachelor’s degree in humanities from Yale University and a master’s degree in global ethics from King’s College London.

Twitter: @scott_f_griffen

Stefano Vergine is an Italian investigative journalist focusing on economics and foreign affairs. He mainly writes for Il Fatto Quotidiano. His works are published also by other media outlets such as RAI, Euobserver.com, RSI, BBC. The investigation “Chinese Underworld” has been conducted by Info.Libre, Il Fatto Quotidiano and Info.Nodes. The video has been made by Visionair Prod.

Twitter: @StefanoVergine

Eva von Schaper is a German-American journalist living in Munich. Her work has appeared in major publications in both English and German. In early 2020, she set out to explore the link between the drop-in measles vaccination rates in Europe and the rise of populist parties. As the pandemic unfolded, she began to see the patterns in covid-denialism that mimicked what we had seen with anti-vaxxers. Together with her co-host, she started The Inoculation podcast and the Inoculated newsletter to explore disinformation, anti-vaccine groups, and covid-denialism.

Twitter: @EvavonSchaper

Ekaterina Mandova has been supporting independent public-interest journalism in Europe for two years as part of her role in Civitates. Before joining Civitates, Ekaterina worked for different organisations on topics related to social and environmental issues. Throughout the years, she has been involved in different journalistic projects and initiatives around Europe. As a journalist, she has worked for private and community media outlets in Bulgaria and Austria.

Twitter: @emandova