Dr. Courtney C Radsch, PhD

Courtney C. Radsch, PhD, is a global thought leader who writes and speaks about the intersection of technology, media, and rights. Currently, she is the Director of the Center for Journalism and Liberty at Open Markets Institute and is a non-resident fellow at UCLA’s Technology, Law and Policy Institute, Brookings Institute, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Media and Journalism Research Center, and the Center for International Governance Innovation. Her research focuses on AI and internet governance; platformatization; media sustainability and the future of journalism; and the evolving socioeconomic and technopolitical effects of media and technology. She is the author of of Cyberactivism and Citizen Journalism in Egypt: Digital Dissidence and Political Change (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2016) based on her pioneering doctoral research and has published in top media outlets The New York Times, Forbes, CNN, Al Jazeera, Columbia Journalism Review, and Project Syndicate, among others as well as in peer-reviewed journals. Radsch is a frequent public speaker and regularly provides expert commentary in the media, including CNN, Al Jazeera, NPR, and other global media outlets. She has led media assessment and advocacy missions to more than a dozen countries and has provided expert testimony to Congress, the OSCE, OECD, and the United Nations. Dr. Radsch’s research and work are informed by a commitment to human rights and ensuring the sustainability of independent media.

Dr. Radsch serves on several boards including Tech Policy Press, the Dangerous Speech Project and Ranking Digital Rights, and chairs the steering committee of the Observatory on Information and Democracy and is a scientific member of the International Panel on the Information Environment. She was appointed by the U.N. Secretary General in 2021 to the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) where she is also a founding member of the Dynamic Coalition on Sustainability of Journalism and the News Media and part of the Best Practice Forum on Gender and Digital Rights. In 2022, she was appointed to the International Advisory Council of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT). Dr. Radsch serves on the policy committee of the Global Network Initiative and advisory bodies for the Christchurch Call, the OECD, and the World Economic Forum She was a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the outreach and partnership chair for GigaNet (the academic network of internet governance scholars).

Dr. Radsch specializes in transforming research and ideas into action while building cross-functional organizational strategies and alliances to advance policy objectives and knowledge. She spent seven years as Director of Advocacy and Communications at the Committee to Protect Journalists and previously worked at UNESCO, Freedom House, and as a journalist in the Middle East. Dr. Radsch holds a Ph.D. in international relations from American University, a M.S. from Georgetown University and a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Find her on Twitter @courtneyr and www.mediatedspeech.com.