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International debate on information rights in the focus of crisis

Media freedom is a fundamental human right in democratic societies. In EU member states such as Hungary, Czechia, and Slovakia, the existence of the independent press is under threat. The aim of the international conference is to highlight the importance of free journalism, especially in times of crisis, and to connect media professionals with civil society in order to develop strategies.

Friday, February 20, 2026, 2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Department of Communication at the University of Vienna, Währinger Straße 29, Lecture Hall 2, 2nd floor, 1090 Vienna

German version

Welcome:

Jörg Matthes (Deputy Head, Department of Communication)
Fritz Hausjell (President, Reporters Without Borders Austria)

Presentations and discussion:

• Beata Balogová (Chief Commentator, SME; Bratislava)
• Pavla Holcová (Editor-in-chief investigace.cz; Prague)
• Edit Inotai (Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy; Budapest)
• Antoine Bernard (Director Advocacy and Assistance, RSF International; Paris)

Moderator: Barbara Tóth (Board Member, Reporters Without Borders Austria)

Further program point:

Guided tour through the international exhibition Shooting the World of Tomorrow on the occasion of 40 years of Reporters Without Borders.

Conference in English – admission is free!

Please register at: info@rog.at

A joint event organized by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Austria and the Department of Communication at the University of Vienna.

Short biographies:

Beata Balogová is an award-winning journalist; from 2014 to 2025, she was editor-in-chief of the Slovak daily newspaper and news website SME and is currently chief commentator; In 2020, she received the European Press Prize in the Opinion category and has been awarded national journalism prizes in Slovakia three times. She is a member of the European Press Prize board and was vice-chair of the International Press Institute’s Executive Council from 2016 to 2022.

Pavla Holcová is an investigative journalist and founder of independent outlet and OCCRP member center investigace.cz. She has contributed to major cross-border projects such as the Panama Papers, the Russian and Azerbaijani Laundromats, the Pegasus Project, the Pandora Papers, and the Russian Asset Tracker. She is the winner of the ICFJ Knight International Journalism Award and, with her colleagues Arpád Soltész and Eva Kubániová, the World Justice Project’s Anthony Lewis Prize Award.

Edit Inotai worked as a correspondent in Berlin from 2003 to 2007 and as a foreign correspondent for the leading daily newspaper Népszabadság until 2014; she later moved to the weekly business newspaper Figyelő, which was taken over by the government in 2017; She currently works for the German public television broadcaster ARD and the investigative news site Balkan Insight in Budapest, and is a board member of the Budapest-based think tank Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy (CEID).

Antoine Bernard is a lawyer and Director of Advocacy, Litigation and Assistance at Reporters Without Borders (RSF) International; Co-Director of the Master’s program in Human Rights and Humanitarian Action at Sciences Po (PSIA).

With support from: