We do this by providing financial assistance to pay legal fees, helping to access free legal advice and taking on cases in international courts and supervisory bodies.
The Media Legal Defence Initiative also works to strengthen the capacity of lawyers to defend the rights of the media by supporting education, networking, exchange of information and cooperation opportunities for people working in the field.
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A panel at the New York launch of the MLDI discusses how to counter the legal threat to media freedom
You can see photos of the launch here
The Media Legal Defence Initiative Worldwide
The Media Legal Defence Initiative works in several countries worldwide. Click here to find out more about our work.
Defending the journalist Jean Bosco Gasasira
Rwanda
It was not the kind of story that would normally have concerned Jean Bosco Gasasira, a newspaper editor and one of the handful of respected investigative journalists in Rwanda. A sex scandal involving a man who had lured three married women into affairs with the false promise that he would later marry them. But there was more to it than that.
Supporting the fight for media freedom
South Africa
The Freedom of Expression Institute, a Johannesburg- based organisation which works to challenge legal restrictions on freedom of expression, received a grant from the MLDI to support test case litigation and for the provision of legal advice to local media outlets in need of assistance.