Launch of second student edition of Mediaforum, chaired by Emma de Vries
On 14 February, the second student edition of Mediaforum, journal of media and communication law, was festively launched with a symposium in the Academy Building of Leiden University. During the symposium, the student authors, some of them from our own ranks (Roosmarijn Altink, Roosmarijn Niesing and Roel Luiten), presented their papers. The programme concluded with a panel discussion on pressing topics concerning media and communication law.
The afternoon was chaired by Emma de Vries, co-organiser of the symposium, member of the editorial board of the second student edition of Mediaforum, and PhD candidate at the Department of European Law at Leiden University (Emma graduated in constitutional and administrative law at the same university in 2023). The organisation of the symposium was further in the hands of Sanne Stapel (attorney at law at De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek), Wisse van der Lelij (master's student in civil law, UU), both also members of the editorial board of the second student edition of Mediaforum and both former students of the master's in Information Law at the University of Amsterdam, in collaboration with Professor Tarlach McGonagle (IViR, UvA & constitutional and administrative law, UL), Lotte van den Bosch (constitutional and administrative law, UL) and the Association for Media and Communication Law (VMC).
The contributions from the various student authors in this second student publication cover several topics, including: the legal protection against ‘SLAPPs’ (strategic lawsuits against public participation), the democratic legitimacy of ‘fact checks’, the potential of the Digital Services Act (DSA) to protect journalists from online threats, the raison d'être of public service broadcasting, and the protection of artistic expression under Article 10 of the ECHR. The symposium was thus filled with a rich collection of relevant topics. Present at the symposium were fellow students, policy makers, academics, friends and family.
The initiative to launch a student edition of Mediaforum was previously taken by Professor Tarlach McGonagle in collaboration with VMC. The idea of the student publications is to give students and recent graduates the opportunity to publish their papers, theses or other writings and thus get exposure to publishing academic work early in their careers. A blind peer review process is used for these publications. The editors of Mediaforum’s student editions are (former) students, allowing them to gain editorial experience in this way. The first student edition of Mediaforum came out in spring 2023 and now has a worthy successor.
Mediaforum is published by DeLex media, in cooperation with the VMC. The second student publication is available here.