Anayit Khoperiya is a judicial reform expert and a lawyer. She worked at the Ministry of Justice in the Department of International Disputes, where she was engaged in the protection of the rights and interests of Ukraine. She worked with experts from the UK on pre-trial investigations at the NABU. At the moment, Anayit Khoperiya is pursuing a PhD in law.

Anastasiia (Stasy) is a media analyst and consultant focused on media research and media management. As a consultant at Jnomics, Anastasiia is working on educational projects, media strategies, and research in Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, Armenia, and Georgia. Before joining Jnomics she worked as a communications manager, fact-checker, and media researcher for Ukrainian NGOs and European Parliament. As a Fulbright Fellow, she researched Western media at the University of Kansas, where she earned a Master's in Communications Studies.

Angelina Karyakina is a journalist and media manager. She is a co-founder of Public Interest Journalism Lab. She is the editor and author of The Reckoning Project films. She covered the Revolution of Dignity and Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine for Euronews. She graduated from the directing workshop of Sergiy Bukovsky. In 2015, she joined Hromadske as a journalist and host. She is the author of the documentary series "Tracing the Revolution" about the events on Maidan and the Sentsov-Kolchenko case "A Stage Across Half the World". She worked as the editor-in-chief of Hromadske for three years. From 2020 to 2022, she worked on creating the multimedia news service of Suspilne as the editor-in-chief, and later as the chief producer of news programming.

Andriy Boborykin is a Ukrainian media manager and media expert. He serves as the executive director of “Ukrayinska Pravda” and as the Head of Growth at the Media Development Foundation, an organization that supports media. Previously, he held positions as the director of digital marketing and products at Suspilne, the editorial director of Genesis Media, the editor-in-chief of Bit.ua, and the editorial director of the international holding company Tribuna Digital. He is also the host of the Mediabil podcast and creator of other media products.

Andriy Kulykov is a Ukrainian TV and radio presenter, media manager, and media expert. He is the chairman of the board of "Public Radio" and the chairman of the Commission on Journalistic Ethics. With over forty years of experience in the media industry, he has worked at the Ukrainian Service of the BBC in London and led the Television News Service on the channel "1+1". He hosted the talk show "Freedom of Speech" on the ICTV channel. In 2013, he co-founded "Public Radio". He has been a moderator and presenter at the LMF for many years.

He has curated the electronic arts project Transformator (2009, alongside Łukasz Szałankiewicz), Futurological Congress (2010), Cyber Pills for Mental Health (2015), [De]Constructing: Ukrainian Media Art 1991-2016 (2016, as part of the European Capital of Culture Wroclaw 2016, with Yanina Prudenko). Linik has also co-curated projects like “Imaginary Guide: Japan” (2017, Mystetskyi Arsenal, with Yuliia Zinovieva and Yuliia Vahanova) and others. He has coordinated numerous initiatives of the Institute of Contemporary Art and the Contemporary Art Week (2008), and served as co-curator in collaboration with Vlodko Kaufman in 2014.Participant of the Multiplace project (Žilina, Slovakia), Cyberfest (Berlin, Germany), Mindware 1.0 (Lublin, Poland), the WRO Media Art Biennale (Wroclaw, Poland), and Contemporary Art Week (Lviv).

Artem Bidenko is the head of the Institute of Information Security. He is a political scientist, journalist, and expert in marketing and political communications. He is also an expert for the project “To Ukrainians about the European Union.” Formerly, he served as the State Secretary of the Ministry of Information Policy and the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy. In the past, he managed the projects “Gardens of Victory” and “Crimea Platform Summit.” He initiated and managed the creation of the national brand UkraineNow. He is an advisor to the Gaze Media, the English-language project of the International Broadcasting Multimedia Platform of Ukraine.

Asami Terajima is a war reporter for the Ukrainian English-language media outlet Kyiv Independent, covering the Russian war against Ukraine. Originally from Japan, Terajima moved to Ukraine during childhood and completed her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in the U.S. She covered business topics for the Ukrainian English-language media outlet Kyiv Post. She is the winner of the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s Kurt Schork Award in International Journalism 2023 (Local Reporter category) and the George Weidenfeld Prize, awarded as part of Germany’s Axel Springer Award 2023. She was also featured in the Media Development Foundation’s “25 under 25: Young and Bold” 2023 list.

Bohdan Shumylovych is a historian and art history researcher. He is the head of educational projects at the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe in Lviv. He obtained a Master’s degree in modern and contemporary history from the Central European University in Budapest and received education in art history at the Lviv Academy of Arts. He also studied at the George Washington University in the USA. Bohdan Shumylovych’s research focuses on the history of media (including television) in Central and Eastern Europe and the USSR, urban creativity, media art, and related topics.

Carolina Amoroso is an Argentine journalist, television host, and writer. She hosts the television program TN Internacional and the daily news program Está Pasando on the Todo Noticias channel, as well as other television and radio programs. She is a recipient of the Martín Fierro Award for television hosting and the FOPEA Award for in-depth journalism. Additionally, she has authored documentary films and non-fiction books.

Charlie Holt leads the European work of Climate Legal Defence (CliDef), an organization that supports activists who have been targeted by SLAPP practices — using lawsuits to intimidate or silence them — and other legal threats. He advises Greenpeace International on legal strategy, particularly in managing resistance to SLAPP tactics, and serves on the European Commission’s Expert Group against SLAPP. Additionally, he is a member of the Steering Committee of the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE) and co-chair of the SLAPP Working Group in the United Kingdom.

Darko Brkan is the executive director of the Bosnian civil society organization Zašto Ne (“Why Not?”), which specializes in fact-checking, countering disinformation, developing technologies, monitoring political processes, and promoting civic participation. He is a board member of the Bosnian office of the Open Government Partnership and chairman of the board of the regional network Action SEE, among others. He works on topics related to digital and social media, elections and political processes, civic engagement, international relations, combating disinformation, and fact-checking.

David Klimeš is a Czech journalist, writer, and university lecturer at Charles University in Prague. He is the Executive Director of the NGO Endowment Fund for Independent Journalism (Nadační fond nezávislé žurnalistiky), which supports independent and quality media in the Czech Republic. The author has written books on infotainment, the history of Czech and Czechoslovak media, and more.

David Patrikarakos is a British journalist and war correspondent. He is the author of the book War in 140 Characters: How Social Media is Reshaping Conflict in the Twenty-First Century, which explores the impact of social media on conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine. The Ukrainian translation of the book was published by Yakaboo Publishing. Patrikarakos is an expert on conflicts in the Middle East and Iranian politics. He has lectured on disinformation at the United States Military Academy and the British Army’s General Staff. Additionally, he has taught at Harvard, Yale, Oxford, the London School of Economics, King’s College, and other universities. Patrikarakos contributes to British and American media outlets, particularly on the topic of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Diana Butsko is a Ukrainian journalist. She worked at LB.ua media outlet. In 2022, she obtained a master’s degree from Southern Illinois University, USA, and then returned to Ukraine to cover Russia’s full-scale invasion. Currently based in Kyiv, she works as a correspondent for Hromadske media. She reports from the front lines, including on the course of hostilities, the humanitarian situation, and Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine.

Diána Vonnák is a social anthropologist from Budapest, Hungary. Since 2014, her research focuses on the cultural and heritage politics of Ukraine. She obtained her PhD from Durham University (UK) and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Stirling, Scotland.Diána Vonnák is an affiliate researcher with the Center for Urban History of East-Central Europe in Lviv. Besides her academic work, Diána is a literary author. In 2023, she won a fellowship in the Junge Akademie at Berlin’s Akademie der Künste. Diána translates Ukrainian poetry to her native Hungarian. For instance, a selection of Serhii Zhadan’s poems was published in her translation in 2023. She regularly writes about Ukraine for Hungarian media.

Dmytro TuzhanskyiPolitical and media analyst, co-founder and CEO of the Institute for Central European Strategy, which aims at conceptualizing and advocating Ukraine’s new doctrine on Central Europe as a springboard for European and Euro-Atlantic integration.
‍
Dmytro Tuzhanskyi is professionally involved in three main areas: international relations, media and election observation. His portfolio includes cooperation as consultant and  analyst with IRI, International Alert, OSCE and ENEMO (missions to Russia, Moldova, Norway). You can also find his name in a series of articles dedicated to Central and Eastern Europe, for instance in The New York Times, Washington Post, Le Monde, Spiegel. As an author and columnist Dmytro contributes for Newsweek, Atlantic Council, New Eastern Europe, European Pravda, etc. Dmytro is also an alum of the IVLP (2019), Think Visegrad (2020) and Policy Designers Network of GMF (2021), Ukraine and Eastern Europe Programme of Globsec (2022-2023).

Ewa Thompson is an American literary scholar. A former professor of Slavic studies and chair of the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies at Rice University (USA). She has taught at Indiana University, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Virginia, and has lectured at Princeton, Witswatersrand (South Africa), Toronto (Canada), and Bremen (Germany). She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Warsaw and her doctoral degree from Vanderbilt University. Author of five books, several dozen scholarly articles, hundreds of media publications and reviews. Her books and articles have been translated into Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Chinese, and other languages. Ewa Thompson’s book “Troubadours of the Empire: Russian Literature and Colonialism” has resonated in Ukraine.

Franak Viačorka is a Belarusian opposition activist, journalist, researcher, and media expert. He works as part of the team led by the leader of the Belarusian democratic opposition, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. He serves as the Vice President of the non-profit association Digital Communication Network and is a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. He previously worked as a media analyst for the US Agency for Global Media, studying the digital markets of Eurasia, including Russia and China’s attempts to control the global media space, internet, and disseminate disinformation. He has also served as the Creative Director of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Belarusian service and as a consultant for Freedom House.

Gavin Rees is a senior training and innovation advisor at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, a project of the Columbia Journalism School. For many years, he headed the Dart Center in Europe. He has organized workshops and discussions on trauma, resilience, and interviewing skills for students and practicing journalists in many countries. Previously, he worked as a television news producer for British, American, and Japanese channels, producing documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4, and independent film companies. He was the lead producer of the BBC film “Hiroshima,” which won an Emmy Award in 2006.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is an American literary theorist and philosopher, a professor at Columbia University. Born in India, she received her education at the University of Calcutta, followed by studies at Cambridge. A co-founder of postcolonial theory, she focuses particularly on the role of women in postcolonial discourse. The author of ten scholarly and popular books, one of which — “In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics” — has been translated into Ukrainian. She is an activist in the International Women’s Movement, advocating for environmental justice and the promotion of quality rural education. Spivak has translated into English the works of Jacques Derrida, as well as works by authors from former British and French colonies.

Henry Marsh is a British neurosurgeon and writer. He studied Soviet politics at the University of Oxford, and later trained as a neurosurgeon in London. He has been visiting Ukraine to carry out pro bono medical work since 1992 and has been a passionate advocate for Ukraine ever since. The BBC documentary about his work in Ukraine The English Surgeon (2010) won an Emmy Award. He has written three best-selling memoirs. The first one, Do No Harm (2014), has been translated into 38 languages. It was released in Ukraine under the title “Stories about Life, Death, and Neurosurgery.”

Jörg Lau is a German journalist, and international correspondent at Die Zeit, based in Berlin. Until 2022, he was the foreign news editor in the same outlet. Mr Lau was a visiting fellow at the Harvard Center for European Studies. He writes about foreign politics, integration and immigration issues and recently has been focusing on cultural debates about the role of religion and the dialogue between the West and the Islamic world.

Kira Tugushi is a manager and content specialist at SEOforMedia. She combines years of experience in digital marketing and promoting commercial projects with journalistic education and media work experience.

Lusine Kharatyan is an Armenian writer and scholar. She is a researcher at the Department of Cultural Anthropology at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia. She is also the Director of the Continuing Education Center at Yerevan State University. Since 2018, she has represented Armenia in the Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of the Council of Europe. Her research focuses on memory politics, educational policy, adult education, reconciliation and conflict resolution, and issues related to ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities. She is a member of the Armenian and American PEN, and she serves as the Chair of the Committee of Armenian PEN Writers.

CEO of PlusOne Social Impact. With his extensive expertise in strategic communications, Maksym has been collaborating with many Ukrainian government agencies to strengthen their communication capacities. For over 10 years, Maksym has been engaged in researching Russian propaganda and its methods, as well as means to counter its damaging impact.In March 2022, with the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Maksym co-founded the Media Center Ukraine, a public initiative with a focus on assisting international media that covers the war from inside the country. In 2014-2017, Maksym was also a co-founder of the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center.

Mariia Horban is a journalist at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, working on the “Ty Yak?” project focusing on refugees and internally displaced persons. Previously, she worked as an investigative journalist at Suspilne and Slidstvo.Info, co-authoring impactful investigations recognized with international awards. She graduated from the Ivan Franko Lviv National University and the School of Journalism at the Ukrainian Catholic University. She is also the author of the film “Welcome to Ireland” about Ukrainian refugees in Ireland.

Marie-Doha Besancenot is a French communications expert and Assistant to the NATO Secretary General for Public Diplomacy. Since 2014, she has worked at Allianz France in managerial positions, focusing on communications since 2020. She has also taught at the French Military College. From 2012 to 2014, she served as an attaché at the Embassy of France in the United Kingdom, and prior to that, as a communications advisor to the Prime Minister. She has an educational background in German and American studies.

Min Hsuan Wu is a Taiwanese activist, co-founder, and CEO of the Taiwanese organization DoubleThinkLab, known by the nickname Ttcat. He researches Chinese information manipulation mechanisms on the internet and advocates against digital authoritarianism. DoubleThinkLab focuses on internet issues, public discourse, civil society, and democracy, exploring contemporary threats to democracy and strategizing ways to counter them.

Nataliia Sudakova is a media manager and co-founder of the SEOforMedia agency with over 10 years of experience in the media industry. Formerly an editor at “Ukrainska Pravda.” She is also a mentor at the Media Development Foundation and serves as a consultant and lecturer for the Thomson Foundation, DW Acadamie, Centre for Media Studies SSE Riga, Internews, and others.

Natalia Humeniuk is a journalist and correspondent specializing in international affairs and conflict coverage. She is the co-founder and executive director of the Public Interest Journalism Lab. She is also a co-founder, editor, and lead journalist of the international project documenting war crimes, The Reckoning Project. The author of several documentaries and books, including “The Lost Island: Reports from the Occupied Crimea” and “Maidan Tahrir: In Search of the Lost Revolution.” She regularly contributes to The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Rolling Stone, Die Zeit, and The Atlantic. She was a co-founder and served as the head of Hromadske and Hromadske International for 5 years. Currently, she serves on the Hromadske Board of Directors. In 2022, she received the Free Media Awards for her coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war. In 2023, she was awarded the international Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Award.Natalia Humeniuk has been a speaker and moderator at LMF conferences on multiple occasions.

Nataliia Nahorna is a special correspondent for the news service of the Ukrainian TV channel 1+1, which has been part of the joint telethon United News since 2022. She is a war correspondent who has been covering Russia’s war in Ukraine for more than 10 years, starting with the annexation of Crimea. During the Revolution of Dignity, she was a member of the evacuation team of the Ukrainian Red Cross. She has worked for STB, ICTV, NTN, TRC Ukraina and other channels. She is a journalism teacher, blogger, and writer. She is the author of the fiction book “Return from the War” and co-author of the documentary books “War through the Eyes of TSN” and “Independence through the Eyes of TSN”.

Nigel Osborne is a British composer, educator, and music therapist. He was a professor of music at the University of Edinburgh and also taught at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover. He has been involved in supporting children affected by war, including those in the Balkans and Syria, using music therapy methods. Currently, he is working with children impacted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.Osborne’s works have been featured in international festivals. He has close ties with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Hebrides Ensemble, and Intercontinental Ensemble, and has composed extensively for theatre, opera, and music theatre productions for Glyndebourne, English National Opera, Shakespeare’s Globe, and BBC Radio 3. He is a recipient of numerous international music awards.

Oleksandra Matviichuk is the head of the Center for Civil Liberties, a human rights lawyer specialising in issues in Ukraine and other countries in Europe, the Far East, Central Asia and North America. She initiates projects aimed at promoting democracy and protecting human rights. After the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, she co-founded the initiative “Tribunal for Putin”, which documents the war crimes of the Russian invaders. She received the Democracy Defender Award and participated in the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program at Stanford University.In 2022, she received the prestigious Right Livelihood Award and was named one of the 25 most influential women by the Financial Times. Under her leadership, the Center for Civil Liberties won the Nobel Peace Prize 2022 (together with Russian and Belarusian human rights organisations).

Olena Removska is a Ukrainian television journalist who hosts programs on Suspilne. Prior to 2021, she worked at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. She hosts her own television interview project. In 2019, she was awarded the “Honor of the Profession” prize in the category of “Best News Coverage of a Resonant Event.” She is also the author of the book “Radio Svoboda Is Speaking: History of the Ukrainian Editorial Office” (2014). In 2023, she was honored by the Souspilnist Foundation for her special contribution to the development of journalism and high professional standards.

Olga Aivazovska is the chairperson of the board of the Civil Network OPORA. She is a co-founder of several other civil society organizations and initiatives. She holds degrees in philology and law. Aivazovska participated in the preparation of negotiations within the Trilateral Contact Group for the settlement of the military conflict in Donetsk and Luhansk regions from 2016 to 2018. She has been ranked multiple times among the most influential women in Ukraine. A graduate of the Ukrainian School of Political Studies and the Draper Hills Summer Fellows Program at Stanford University.

Olha Bilousenko is the head of the R&D Department of NGO Lviv Media Forum, a Ukrainian media professional, media analyst, researcher of Russian disinformation and propaganda, gender disinformation specialist, and author of studies on detecting Russian disinformation on social media. Her research includes studies on Russian LGBT disinformation and gender disinformation.

Olga Rudnieva is the head and co-founder of Superhumans Centre, a clinic for psychological assistance, prosthetics, reconstructive surgery and rehabilitation for people affected by war. She headed the largest logistics hub in Europe — HelpUkraine Centre. From 2004 to August 2022, she was the director of the Olena Pinchuk Foundation and coordinator of the Dialog Hub sexuality education space. She co-founded the Veteran Hub, a space for providing comprehensive services to veterans. She has led large-scale media campaigns and charity concerts by Elton John, Queen and Paul McCartney in Ukraine.

Olga Tokariuk is a Chatham House OSUN Academy Fellow, Ukraine Forum. Her professional interests are international affairs and research on disinformation, especially in the context of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Olga’s background is in journalism and she has vast experience in Ukrainian and international media. Her work was published by TIME, The Washington Post, NPR, BBC, Monocle, EFE (Spain), ANSA (Italy). She is a former head of foreign news desk at the independent Ukrainian Hromadske TV.

Ostap Manulyak is a composer, performer, lecturer, and curator. He holds a Ph.D. in Art History and is an associate professor at the Composition Department of the Mykola Lysenko Lviv National Music Academy. He is a co-founder of the Art Association NURT, curator of the VOX ELECTRONICA Electroacoustic Music Festival, co-curator of the TETRAMATYKA Audiovisual Art Festival, and head of the Experimental Educational Studio for Electroacoustic Music (EESEM) at the Mykola Lysenko Lviv National Music Academy. He is a Fulbright Program (Stanford) and Gaude Polonia Program (Krakow) scholar.

Patricia Macías is a Spanish journalist, specializing in gender, migration, and human rights issues. She obtained her journalism education at Complutense University of Madrid. She has lived two years in the UK and five years in Guatemala, where she worked as a journalist and coordinator of social projects.

Pauline Maufrais works as a project manager for Ukraine in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk of the international organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF). She has worked for several years in Ukraine as a project manager for Ukrainian and international humanitarian and human rights NGOs, as well as a press officer for French diplomacy in Ukraine. Pauline’s areas of expertise are the Ukrainian media landscape, media support in Ukraine and Russian propaganda.

Literary scholar and literary critic. Director of the "Smoloskyp" publishing house, associate professor at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

Sabra Ayres is an American journalist who has reported on Ukraine for the Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair, The Associated Press, Al Jazeera and many other media outlets since 2003. Based in Kyiv, she is the editor of The Reckoning Project and a mentor in the IRMI/Fondation Hirondelle project supporting Ukrainian regional media. She was a volunteer with the US Peace Corps in Kaniv, Cherkasy region, from 1995 to 1997.Sabra Ayres was a participant of the LMF 2023 conference.

Shlomi Eldar is an Israeli journalist, commentator and documentary filmmaker who works primarily on topics and events in the Arab world. Since the 1990s, he has been reporting on the Arab region and Palestine for major Israeli news centres. In 2010, he released the documentary Precious Life, which won the prestigious Israeli Ophir Award and was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. In 2007, Eldar received the Sokolov Prize, the most prestigious award in the Israeli media, for his coverage of the Gaza Strip. He is the author of three books: Eyeless in Gaza (2005), Getting to Know HAMAS (2012), which won the Yitzhak Sade Prize for Military Literature, and HAMAS: from a Welfare Organization to War Crimes (2024).

Terrell Starr is an American journalist and international affairs commentator. He is the founder and host of the Black Diplomats podcast, focusing on international political issues, particularly regarding Ukraine. Having spent considerable time in Ukraine, he has studied Russian colonialism and imperialism. Starr has also covered the American presidential campaigns of 2016 and 2020 and has contributed to projects at FUSION, The Root, and Foxtrot Alpha. His writing appears in media outlets such as Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, and others. With a background in journalism and Russian studies, Starr has reported on and witnessed firsthand the events of the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine.

Tetyana Troshchynska is a journalist, media manager, media trainer, and radio host. She is the author of programs on Radio Culture and Hromadske Radio and the producer of the talk show “New Countdown” on Suspilne. She worked at Public Radio from 2014, where she was the chief editor from 2018 to 2024. Troshchynska began her journalism career in 1992 while studying at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. She hosted news broadcasts and programs on Ukrainian Radio and spent seven years as the deputy editor-in-chief of TSN (Television Service of News) on the 1+1 channel. She defended her doctoral dissertation on reputation management in government bodies. Troshchynska has also taught at the National Academy for Public Administration under the President of Ukraine and at Kyiv-Mohyla Business School.

Dr Tetyana Lokot is a Ukrainian media researcher and associate professor of digital media and society at the School of Communications at Dublin City University. She studies digital rights and their violations, authoritarianism online, and internet governance in Eastern Europe. Lokot has taught at the Kyiv-Mohyla School of Journalism. She authored the book Beyond the Protest Square: Digital Media and Augmented Dissent (2021), a comprehensive study of the impact of digital media on the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine. She is the deputy chair of the Working Group on Ukraine at the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) and serves on the Board of Directors of Places of Sanctuary Ireland. Her work has been published in The Guardian, The Washington Post, and Foreign Policy.

Timothy Garton Ash is a British historian, European Studies professor at St Antony’s College, Oxford University, and a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is the author of eleven books on European history. His book “Homelands. A Personal History of Europe,” published in 2023, has been translated into 22 languages, including Ukrainian, and released by Vivat Publishing. Garton Ash is also a publicist and contributes to The New York Review of Books and The Guardian. He supports Ukraine and is a co-author of one of the plans to aid Ukraine.

Tsvetelina van Benthem is a researcher and lecturer in international law at the University of Oxford. She co-convenes the Oxford Transitional Justice Research group and is a member of the core team organising the Oxford Process on International Law Protections in Cyberspace. Tsvetelina is a senior legal adviser at The Reckoning Project, working on state and individual accountability for violations of international law related to Russia's aggression against Ukraine. She is the President of the Bulgarian-registered educational organisation Centre for International Law 'Erga Omnes'.

Valeria “Nava” Subotina is a military servicewoman, journalist, lecturer, writer, director of YOUkraine.hub. She served in the press services of the Azov Regiment (2015–2016) and the Donetsk Border Guard Unit (2017–2020). When the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine started, she joined the Azov Regiment and defended Mariupol. While besieged at “Azovstal,” she wrote texts that became known worldwide. On May 17, 2022, following the order of the President of Ukraine, she, along with other defenders of Mariupol, left “Azovstal” and was forcibly taken captive. Released from captivity almost after a year on April 10, 2023. Currently a Major in the National Guard of Ukraine, reserve Officer.

Veronika Víchová is a CIS analyst who focuses on disinformation in Central Europe. She holds a Master's degree in European Studies and a Bachelor's degree in International Relations and European Studies from Masaryk University in Brno.

Media expert, media trainer, expert on digital security, media literacy and freedom of speech on the Internet. Project manager at eQualitie.

Yaryna is a visual artist, performer, co-curator, and lecturer. She works across various mediums including performance art, painting, graphics, and installation, exploring the concept of presence through the body and its visual expressions.Having graduated from the Lviv National Academy of Arts, Yaryna was a grant recipient of the Gaude Polonia scholarship program by the Polish Minister of Culture and was shortlisted for the Young Ukrainian Artists Competition MYXi (2015) and the II Youth Biennale of Contemporary Art of Ukraine (2019). Yaryna has showcased her work in solo exhibitions and art projects across Ukraine, Poland, and Spain. She has participated in numerous exhibitions, performance art festivals, and conferences worldwide, spanning countries like Ukraine, Poland, Italy, Norway, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Germany, France, Portugal, Spain, Israel, Japan, Thailand, Canada, and the USA.An active organizer and curator, Yaryna co-organized the School of Performance (2019) as part of the International festival “Days of Art Performance in Lviv”, as well as online residencies like “At the place” and “Performance Archive. Ukraine” (2020). She also shares her expertise as a teacher at the Department of Contemporary Art Practices at the Lviv National Academy of Arts.Yaryna’s recent works have been featured at А231 Federação (Salvador, Brazil), JDMooney Foundation and FLOW / Out of Site Chicago (USA), Ukraine!UNMUTED (Kaunas, Lithuania), and BIFPA’23 (Belfast, Northern Ireland/UK).

Yarema Dukh is a strategic communications expert from Ukraine. He currently leads comms projects for governmental and public organisations, runs a YouTube channel on modern history and politics, and co-runs an NGO focused on amplifying Ukraine’s voice in the world and at home.Previously, Yarema worked as the Head of Press service at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (2014), as a Foreign media coordinator at the Presidential Administration of Ukraine (2015-2018), and the Head of press service for the Holos party (2019-2021).He is also co-founder and co-author (2016-2019) of the official Twitter account of Ukraine.Yarema received an MA in Sociology from the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv in 2008. He has been an active member of Plast — Ukrainian scouting — since 2003.

Yaroslav Yurchyshyn is a member of the Ukrainian Parliament and serves as the Chairman of the Committee on Freedom of Speech. He was elected to the Verkhovna Rada on the party list of “Holos”. Previously, he served as the Executive Director and Chairman of the Board of Transparency International Ukraine from 2016 to 2019. He has been working in the civil society sector since 1996 and has been active in organizations such as “Plast,” “Moloda Prosvita,” the Foundation of Regional Initiatives, and the Maidan Self-Defense.

Head of Marketing at the Kyiv Independent. Before joining the Kyiv Independent, Yerbolat worked as a Head of Marketing in Radio Free Europe, where he worked with more than 20 newsrooms from Central and South Asia, Eastern and Central Europe and the Balkans.

Yevhen Hlibovytsky is a Ukrainian expert in long-term strategies and communications. He is the co-founder and head of the Frontier Institute. He is also a partner at the communication company pro.mova, which he founded in 2007. Hlibovytsky is a member of the Nestor and Univ interdisciplinary expert groups, as well as the Supervisory Board of the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine. With a background as a journalist, TV host, and media manager, he now teaches communication to media, business, and non-profit organizations. His research focuses on the cultural influences on Ukraine’s development trajectory. Hlibovytsky is also a lecturer at the Lviv and Kyiv-Mohyla business schools. He holds degrees in political science, law, and philosophy. He has been a speaker at LMF 2023 and many previous years.

She served as co-editor of the culture section at the online publication Zbruch (2013-2018), program director at the NGO “Art Council Dialogue” (2015-2021), and program coordinator at the Czech Center in Kyiv (2020-2022). Nesterovych contributes essays, critiques, and cultural analysis to various media outlets. In 2016, she co-authored the book “Summa” with Yuri Izdryk, published by Meridian Czernowitz. Since May 2022, she has been leading the team at the NGO “Post Bellum — Ukraine.”

Yurii Vovkohon is a culture manager and author of texts and art projects. Currently, he serves as the manager of veteran projects at YMCA Lviv. Previously, he held positions such as press secretary of the Dzyga Art Association and coordinator of various festivals including Jazz Bez, Lviv Flugers, and Fort.Missia, as well as the Contemporary Art Week Biennale.Yurii also manages projects like the Opera-Myth “Ukraine — Terra Incognita” and the documentary film “Vypchyna: The Village of One Day.”
Yurii served in the Volunteer Ukrainian Corps from 2014 to 2015 and later served in the 80th Air Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from 2022 to 2023, during which he was wounded while defending Lysychansk.

Zoya Krasovska is an Analytics Consultant working for NGOs Lviv Media Forum and Women in Media, as well as a National Facilitator in Ukraine for the International Training Programme 'Media Development in a Democratic Framework'. With a background in journalism and 15 years of experience in media, her main focus is on researching the media landscape and strengthening media capacity.