Speakers

Vadim Gasperskij

Head of Legal unit
The Radio and Television Commission of Lithuania (LRTK)

Vadim Gasperskij is a graduate of Mykolas Romeris University in Vilnius, where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in law in 2014 and master’s degree in 2016.

Mr. Gasperskij started his career at the Vilnius District Administrative Court, where he worked as a judge's assistant from 2016 to 2018.

Since 2018 Mr. Gasperskij is working at the Radio and Television Commission of Lithuania as the head of the Legal Department.

As a leading specialist in media law Mr. Gasperskij has been actively involved in harmonization and elaboration of media law, protection of copyright on internet and legal fight against disinformation in the audiovisual media services both in Lithuania and on international level.

Olha Herasymiuk

Chair of the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine
National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine

Olha is a well-known Ukrainian journalist, television program host and television manager.
Having graduated from the Faculty of Journalism at the Kyiv State University, she has worked for seventeen years in the print media. She did her internships in the United States (US News & World Report; Gannett News Service) and the Netherlands, and has worked as a freelance correspondent for the BBC for three years.

In 1995, she started working in television, where she was an author and host of a number of television projects and popular talk shows. She was the General producer of the well-known Ukrainian television and radio company – “1+1”.
Olha also holds a master's degree in foreign policy and has been actively involved in the work of the Ukrainian Parliament as a member of the Committee on Free Expression and Information and the Committee on European Integration. She was Deputy Head of the Permanent Delegation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Olha is a member of the Council of Europe Steering Committee on Media and Information Society.
Since 2014, the year of the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, Olha has become a member of the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine, and in 2020 she became the Chair of this authority. After entering into force of the Law of Ukraine "On the Media", which implemented the provisions of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, the media regulator, headed by her, currently is a crucial state body on reforming and the implementation of European integration processes in the media sphere.

 

Balázs Jó

Deputy Head of the Program Monitoring and Analysis Directorate
National Media And Infocommunications Authority and the Media Council (NMHH)

Mr. Balázs Jó is the Deputy Head of the Program Monitoring and Analysis Directorate to the Media Council of the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (Hungary). Prior to his current position, he has served as the Head of the Program Analysis Department at the National Radio and Television Commission. Before that, he worked as an analyst in the same department. For over a decade Mr. Balázs Jó has consistently represented the Hungarian regulatory authority at EPRA and ERGA. Additionally, he has actively participated in various international projects, including the developement of audiovisual recording capacity for the media authorities in Cyprus and in Malta.

Mr. Balázs Jó holds a Master’s degree in Sociology and Communication and Media from the Eötvös Loránd University of Sciencies in Budapest.

Valentin-Alexandru Jucan

Vice President of the NAC
National Audiovisual Council

Mr Valentin-Alexandru JUCAN is currently serving as the Vice President of the National Audiovisual Council of Romania, holding the rank of Secretary of State. He has been appointed to his second term in this authority, and possesses a considerable amount of experience in public administration.

He also holds the position of Vice-chairperson of the EPRA board – European Platform of Regulatory Authorities.
Mr Jucan received his education at the ‘Gheorghe Dima’ Academy of Music, and subsequently pursued specializations in Law, European Affairs and Journalism.

He is a graduate of the renowned international leadership and journalism program known as the ‘Edward R. Murrow’ program, which is sponsored by the United States Department of State and held in both Washington and New York. Moreover, Mr Jucan has completed post-graduate coursework in Strategic Communications and Operations in the Information Environment at the US Navy.

A considerable portion of Mr Jucan’s preparation was carried out within the framework of the Directorate for European Affairs, in the Romanian Parliament’s upper house, the Senate.

During his tenure, Mr Jucan has prioritized the safeguarding of freedom of expression, the establishment of a mechanism to combat disinformation, and the implementation of mandatory national media education programs. Other critical themes on Mr Jucan's agenda include the protection of minors, as well as combating hate speech that is directed towards individuals based on their ethnicity or sexual orientation. Inter-institutional cooperation and dialogue are fundamental criteria that Mr Jucan employs when addressing issues that are common within the audio-visual industry.

 

Māra Madara Lūse

Head of International Cooperation and Information Analytics Division
National Electronic Mass Media Council

“I am the Head of the International Cooperation and Information Analytics Division at the National Electronic Mass Media Council of Latvia. Prior to this, I was working as Deputy Head of the Monitoring Department, therefore, have extended knowledge of media regulator work concerning disinformation. One of my areas of responsibility are the promotion of media literacy. In addition, I graduated from the University of Latvia, obtaining a master's degree in law and part of my thesis also concentrated on disinformation in TV programmes.”

Helen Rohtla

Head of Information Society Division
Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (CPTRA)

Helen Rohtla is currently leading Information Society Division at Estonian Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (CPTRA). Her Division is responsible for maintaining public order in Internet and media services. CPTRA acts as national regulatory authority for audiovisual media services. In the last years they have focused on fighting war propaganda and hate speech online and in media services.

Wojciech Surmacz - moderator

President of the Polish Press Agency
Polish Press Agency

President of the Polish Press Agency; previously worked as the head of the Polish Radio's economic editorial office, and then the deputy director of the Radiowa Trójka In 2014-2016 he was the editor-in-chief of "Gazeta Bankowa" and wGospodarce.pl. Previously, he worked in the Forbes, Newsweek Polska and Puls Biznesu.

Maciej Świrski

Chairman of the National Broadcasting Council
National Broadcasting Council

Master's degree in history (University of Warsaw), MBA degree (IT management) from the L. Koźmiński Academy of Entrepreneurship and Management in Warsaw, graduate of the Polish Municipals Training Program - Wisconsin University - Milwaukee, innovator, social activist, educator. Member of the Association of Polish Journalists.

Since 1996, he has worked in the field of new technologies. Originator of the first twenty-four-hour live Internet broadcast of a licensed national radio programme in Poland; in 1998, he brought it to fruition.

Between 2006 and 2009, he was a member of the Management Board of the Polish Press Agency, where he supervised the financial, technical and Internet divisions.

He developed the Agency's strategy, particularly with regard to the use of new technologies (audio and video in the agency content stream). He supervised the implementation of a restructuring plan changing the technological face of PAP SA, such as the construction of a new agency system enabling the distribution of packaged multimedia content (text, photo, audio, video), described with metadata according to the IPTC standard.   

In 2012, he founded Reduta Dobrego Imie, a foundation whose statutory goal is to defend Poland's good name through legal and informational means. He was the first to publicly raise the issue of the relationship between Poland's image and national security. Under his guidance, a number of Reduta reports were written in which, among other things, the streaming industry and the changes that the 'streaming revolution' is causing in the global media and infotainment industry, the presence of disinformation in the Polish and global media with a particular focus on Russian 'Active Measures' (Active Measures) destroying Poland's image were analysed.

From April 2017 to July 2018, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Polish National Foundation, responsible for running a strategic communications programme in the USA, which aimed to reach opinion leaders in the United States with Polish content.

Since 2017, he has served on the Supervisory Board of the Polish Press Agency, as its vice-chairman and since 2021 as its chairman. Under his guidance, the PAP Supervisory Board has overseen PAP's technological and organisational change plan and the elimination of the 'technology debt' that arose at the Agency between 2010 and 2015, introduced new services for the Agency's clients, implemented disinformation-blocking measures (Fake Hunter service) and activated the Polish Press Agency internationally.
She is particularly interested in the use of modern forms of communication by people of the "net generation" in the context of contemporary technological change and the impact of this change on the transmission of the Polish cultural code.

Winner of the "Guardian of Memory" Award of the DoRzeczy weekly for the Reduta Dobre Imie - 2015.
Awarded the "Annunciation of the Good News" by Catholic Action and the Catholic Youth Association for the production of the film "From Vilnius to Heaven" - 2017 r.
Awarded the Pearl of Honour by Polish Market magazine to the Reduta Dobrego Imienia for the promotion of Polish values and traditions - 2017.