About us

Justice for Journalists Foundation is a London-based charity (Registered Charity Number 1201812) whose mission is to fight impunity for attacks against media. Justice for Journalists Foundation monitors attacks against media workers and funds investigations worldwide into violence and abuse against professional and citizen journalists. Justice for Journalists Foundation organises media security training and creates educational materials to raise awareness about the dangers to media freedom and methods of protection from them.

Our Mission

We believe security is the essential basis for work in the media. The public right to know is the cornerstone of democracy and any attacks on the free reporting is a threat to its values. We raise awareness about the violence and abuse the media workers are facing around the world and educate professional and citizen journalists how to mitigate their various risks. Along with our partners, advisors and supporters, we fight impunity for crimes against media.

In the support of our Mission, our Objects are:

To promote human rights as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in particular Article 19 and as set out in the European Convention on Human Rights in particular Article 10, and subsequent United Nations conventions and declarations (and other international treaties and laws), throughout the world specifically by protecting the right to freedom of expression, by all or any of the following means:

A. Monitoring abuses of human rights;

B. Raising awareness of such human rights;

C. Promoting public support for such human rights;

D. Research into such human rights issues;

E. International advocacy of such human rights.

The advancement of education and training for the public benefit in the protection and security of journalists and other media workers.

What we do in the furtherance of our Objects

  • Grants for investigating violence and abuse against professional and citizen media workers;
  • Media risk mapping via monitoring, analysing and publicising violence and abuse against media workers;
  • Training and education via online and offline media safety trainings in Orkhan Dzhemal Media Safety Academy;
  • Raising public awareness about the realities of media work worldwide via visual and print materials, and conferences, roundtables, and seminars in support of such initiatives and activities conducted by other charitable organisations involved in the protection of the right to free expression.

All activities of the Foundation are subject to our freedom of expression criteria set out here.

Advisory Board

Jeff Gedmin

Former president of RFE/Radio Liberty, research Council Member at the National Endowment for Democracy, Senior Fellow at Georgetown University and an author.

Luke Harding

Foreign correspondent for the Guardian, who has reported from Dehli, Berlin and Moscow, and author of Collusion: How Russia Helped Trump Win the White House.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Founder of the Open Russia pro-democracy movement, an Amnesty International recognized prisoner of conscience, and the former CEO of the Yukos oil company.

Dmitry Muratov

Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021, Founder and publisher of Novaya Gazeta, Russia’s foremost independent newspaper, known for uncovering government corruption and human rights abuses.

Leonid Nevzlin

Businessman, philanthropist, former managing director of the Yukos oil company, founder of the NADAV Foundation and co-owner of Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

David Satter

Special correspondent on Russian affairs for the Wall Street Journal, former head of FT in Russia, author of many books on Russia.

Board of Experts

Natalya Gevorkyan

Author and journalist with Moscow News, Kommersant, columnist in www.gazeta.ru and Radio Liberty, commentator for TV Rain. US Freedom of Press and Russian Golden Quill awards recipient. Co-chairs the Profession – Journalist contest with Open Russia foundation.

Ricardo Gutiérrez

General Secretary of the European Federation of Journalists.
Former journalist for the Belgian daily newspaper “Le Soir”, senior lecturer at Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), member of the Belgian Press Council (CDJ) and of the Executive Committee of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).

Sarah Giaziri

Рress freedom and journalist safety campaigner and advocate. She was previously the director of Frontline Freelance Register, an initiative of the Frontline Club. Before that she was the MENA programme officer at Rory Peck Trust which provided emergency assistance to freelancers in crisis.  She is the co-founder of Media for Peace in Libya.

Igor Malakhov

Russian-Canadian multimedia journalist and documentary producer; covered Russia, Central Asia, conflicts in Chechnya, Georgia, for TIME/LIFE, ARD, PBS, ABC News, CNN.te House.

Representative of Dossier Investigative Centre

Founded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky to track the criminal activity of various people associated with the Kremlin.

Trustees 

Maria Ordzhonikidze

Designed and managed a number of public awareness, advocacy, human rights and crisis management campaigns. Sociologist and security specialist, she authors research and articles, speaks and teaches on subjects including sociological and political trends, freedom of speech, international relations and security. Maria is risks assessment specialist, she teaches in Orkhan Dzhemal Media Safety Academy and beyond.

Olga Dolburt

Served as a diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel for almost twenty years, working in different positions at the Jerusalem headquarters and embassies abroad. Member of the Israeli Bar Association, worked as a lawyer specializing in corporate law, contracts and tenders. Holds executive role in Nadav foundation.

Maria Logan

Worked as an attorney at the international law company Greenberg Traurig, focusing on corporate and human rights cases. Trustee of Future of Russia Trust and regular speaker on media and civil society issues.

Team

Lana Estemirova is a writer and human rights advocate. Daughter of the prominent human rights activist and journalist Natalya Estemirova, Lana spent first fifteen years in Russia. After her mother’s murder in 2010, Lana moved to the UK where she finished her secondary education and majored in International Relations in the London School of Economics. Lana is passionate about the rights of women, minorities and the safety of journalists and activists. She joined the Justice for Journalists Foundation in 2020 and is now developing the podcast to bring attention to the struggles faced by independent journalists worldwide and give voice to those who risk their wellbeing in order to tell the truth. Lana is currently working on her first book ‘Please, live!’ – recounting her and her mother’s life in Chechnya set against the background of two wars with Russia, Ramzan Kadyrov’s rise to power and the breakdown of traditional Chechen society.

Vafa Fati-zade is an international Project Manager and Lawyer. She has extensive experience in administering and managing large grant portfolios with the major US and European donor organisations. She has vast academic and practical knowledge of monitoring and reporting on human rights violations, democratic development, conducting trial monitoring, profiling political prisoners and carrying out election monitoring. In the course of her career Vafa worked with Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), holding various posts in the Missions in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Office in Baku; the headquarters of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) in Rome, Italy; Brussels-based International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR), and consulted Media Law Defence Initiative (MLDI) and International Bar Association Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) in London. She joined the Justice for Journalists Foundation in 2020 to design and launch Orkhan Dzhemal Media Safety Academy and help manage JFJ’s journalistic grant programme. Vafa Fati-zade has an LLM degree in International Human Rights from the University of Essex in the United Kingdom and an MA degree in Social and Public Policy with Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies minor from Duquesne University in the US.  

Support us

We are grateful for the support we receive from our partner organisations and individuals. 

Through your support we are able to bring media security awareness and safety tools to professional and citizen journalists around the world. As long as they are safe and operational, our knowledge about the world remains multifaceted.