Navigating European rules on prominence of general interest content

Michèle Ledger is a researcher at the CRIDS research centre of the University of Namur where she also lectures on the regulatory aspects of online platforms at the postmaster degree course (DTIC). She has been working for more than 20 years at Cullen International and leads the company’s Media regulatory intelligence service.

Anna Herold is Head of the ‘Audiovisual & Media Services Policy’ unit at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT).

She has previously served as a Member of Cabinet of Günther H. Oettinger, then European Commissioner responsible for Digital Economy and Society.

Prior to that, she was Assistant to the Deputy Director-General of DG CONNECT, Roberto Viola, and before that she was in charge of electronic communications policy design in the Unit of this DG responsible for Regulatory Coordination & Business, where she led a policy outreach team on the Telecoms Single Market initiative.

She has worked for the European Commission since 2003, previously dealing with media and audiovisual policy, as well as competition policy.

Carolina Lorenzon, International Affairs Director at Mediaset, heads its parent company MFE’s Brussels Office. MFE-MediaforEurope N.V. consolidates the Groups’ activities within the EU, with extensive broadcast, content production and advertsing operations in Italy and Spain. Carolina is at present Chair of the Board at ACT (Association of Commercial Televisions and VOD services in Europe) member of the General Council at CRTV (Confindustria Radio Televisioni, the Italian Association of public and private broadcasters) and Board Member at GII – Gruppo d’Iniziativa Italiana – a cross-sector gathering of Italian companies represented in Brussels.

She graduated in Communication/International Affairs (Pepperdine University, Los Angeles) with a senior thesis on “Low Earth Orbit satellites for the development of telecommunication infrastructure in Least Developed Countries”, and holds a master’s degree in Economics and Global Policy (Università Cattolica, Milano).

Jonathan is a project director for the UK communications regulator Ofcom, working in the Broadcast and Media Group. He heads up teams that deliver Ofcom’s regulatory responsibilities in monitoring the performance of the UK Public Service Broadcasters (PSBs) in delivering their remits, in assessing the market impact of the BBC’s activities, and in helping ensure the UK’s PSB system is maintained and strengthened in the long-term. As part of this work, Jonathan currently leads the team providing technical advice to the UK Government on the PSB availability and prominence provisions of the UK Media Bill. He started with Ofcom in 2017 having previously worked for four years as a senior adviser with the BBC and before that a senior performance auditor with the National Audit Office specialising in the broadcast and media sector.

Bertrand Scirpo is head of the audiovisual and digital law unit and data protection officer (DPO) of France Télévisions. He was previously secretary general of the regional network of France 3, chief of staff of the RFO channel and deputy director of institutional relations at France Télévisions.

Sally Broughton Micova is a CERRE Academic Co-Director and an Associate Professor in Communications Policy and Politics at the University of East Anglia (UEA). She is also a member of UEA’s Centre for Competition Policy.

Her research focuses on media and communications policy in Europe.

She completed her PhD in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), after which she was an LSE Teaching and Research Fellow in Media Governance and Policy and Deputy Director of the LSE Media Policy Project.