25 years after the Fall of the Iron Curtain

Keynote Speaker Andrei Richter, Director at the Office of the OSCE Representative for Freedom of the Media and founder of the Moscow Media Law and Policy Institute, will talk about the progress achieved in the field of human rights since the fall of the Iron Curtain, especially with regard to freedom of expression, but also about the challenges which came up as well.

In the last years precisely Russia showed tendencies towards anew restrictions, which lately also concerned the internet. Surveillance is also a phenomenon that has not lost anything of its actuality. It is a more sensitive and controversial issue today than ever before and it shifts to a more invisible appearance, which makes it even more difficult to tackle.

The two following discussants Florian Bieber, Director of the Center for Southeast European Studies,

and Thomas Wolkinger, Lecturer at the Faculty of Journalism and Public Relations at the FH Joanneum Graz, will allow us a deeper and vivid discourse of the topic.