Andreas is member of the management team, responsible for shaping and executing the long-term corporate strategy. His role includes project development, organisational management and advocacy of ECPMF's mission and values with partners and external organisations. Additionally, Andreas works closely with the boards.

He gained his Magister Artium in Communication and Media Science, American Studies and Psychology at the Leipzig University.

Sarah is part of the management and responsible for finances and administration. She is responsible for the overall financial strategy and planning of the organisation and works closely together with project coordinators and project partners. As Director Finances she is also contact person for public donors and administrative organisations on an operational level.

She holds the diploma in European Business Management and has gained international experiences in studying and working in Great Britain and France.

Alina coordinates the Journalists-in-Residence programme at the ECPMF, supports the fellow journalists in Leipzig and works closely with other international temporary relocation programmes. Before joining the ECPMF she used to organize socio-cultural events in Weimar and worked at the Department of International Relations at the Bauhaus-University. She also contributed to the work of the Museum Project of the House of European History at the European Parliament. Alina holds a degree in Science of Media from the Bauhaus-University Weimar.

Antje is the Mapping Media Freedom Consultant at ECPMF. She is responsible for the further development of mappingmediafreedom.org including the scientific framework and the methodology, as well as the operation and management of the platform.
Antje gained her master's degree in Computer Science with a focus on Natural Language Processing (NLP). As research associate she worked for various national & international projects in collaboration with partners from different companies, organisations and universities where she successfully implemented methods of NLP and Textmining in diverse topic areas.

Deniz joined the ECMPF in January 2022 and manages the UNCOVERED Conference and #IJ4EU Impact Award. Previously, she worked as research associate at various interdisciplinary institutions in Leipzig. She is trained in the field of Translation and Interpreting Studies at Boğaziçi and gained MA and doctorate degrees in American Studies at Leipzig University. Her dissertation focuses on spatialization processes as imagined in examples from the literature of the pre-Civil War Southern United States. She is the mother of two cats and enjoys writing and translating fiction as well as non-fiction.

Ena joined the team in December 2024, focusing on the EU-based advocacy, and developing advocacy approaches to promote Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) and ECPMF work and programs.

With an MA degree in Human Rights and Democracy, and over 15 years of experience in the sector, Ena has been working on multifaceted projects aiming to improve freedom of expression and status of journalists, protect human rights defenders, gender equality and promote freedom of assembly and association. She has a thorough experience in digital rights research and policy development, and is a member of OSCE/ODIHR Panel of Experts on Freedom of Assembly and Association.

Flutura Kusari is an international human rights activist and lawyer specialized in freedom of expression and media freedom. Since 2015, she has worked as a senior legal advisor for the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, where she runs the legal support program that has supported hundreds of media workers across Europe. She works closely with the European Union, the Council of Europe, and other European institutions on legal policies and legislation related to media freedom.
As part of her work with the Council of Europe, she provides legal opinions for various governments on the compatibility of media freedom–related legislation with European standards, and trains judges and legal professionals across Europe on media freedom.
Flutura is the co-creator of Europe’s first anti-SLAPP movement, the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE). She co-drafted the Council of Europe Recommendation on SLAPPs and contributed to the drafting of the EU Directive on SLAPPs as a member of the EU expert group.
She holds a Ph.D. from Ghent University in media freedom and a master’s degree from Queen Mary University of London. In 2024, she received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition of her outstanding contributions to media freedom, democracy, and civil society in Kosovo and Europe.

Gürkan was trained in the field of European Studies as a researcher on radicalization and polarization during his two masters degrees at Centre International de Formation Europeenne and Istanbul Bilgi University. He previously worked as a journalist and executive manager at dokuz8NEWS and frequently appeared on international media as commentator on Turkey and digital rights. He has served as board member for various anti-racism and rights-focued NGOs and social movements in Turkey, currently he is a board member for Turkey-European Foundation, Media Research Association and Trauma & Life Association. He is a registered member of Journalists Union of Turkey and International Federation of Journalists.

At the ECPMF, Patrick leads the annual study “Feindbild Journalist:in”, which provides a systematic analysis of violence against journalists, protection and support mechanisms, and other forms of media freedom violations in Germany. Within this broader work, he pays particular attention to local journalism, especially in contexts shaped by far-right mobilisation and hostility toward the press.

His overall research interests focus on press freedom and democratic erosion in Europe, with particular attention to how violations of media freedom both reflect and actively reinforce broader authoritarian dynamics.

Patrick completed his PhD in Comparative Politics at the Institute of Law and Economics at the University of Hamburg. His dissertation examines how the use of emergency laws can facilitate processes of autocratisation.

Previously, he was a guest researcher at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame and a research assistant at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies in the DFG-funded project “The (In)stability of Presidential Term Limits in Africa and Latin America.” He has teaching experience in the fields of democratisation and autocratisation at the University of Hamburg.