(in alphabetical order)

Delphine Colard, European Parliament; Claes de Vreese, independent expert Paula Gori, Secretary General of EDMO; Philile Ntombela, Africa check; Alberto Rabbachin, European Commission; Benjamin Schultz, American Sunlight Project; Giovanni Zagni, head of the EU24 task force, Pagella Politica.

speakers´ bio:

Delphine Colard (European Parliament)

is the Head of Unit in the Spokesperson's unit in the European Parliament. Before that, she was press officer for Institutional affairs following the AFCO committee in the Press Unit. She joined the European Parliament's Secretariat in 2010 after serving in the Belgian diplomacy as Deputy Spokesperson of the Belgian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Spokesperson of the Belgian Permanent Representation to the EU. Delphine studied Political sciences and specialised in European affairs.

Claes H. de Vreese (EDMO, University of Amsterdam)

is Distinguished University Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Society with a special focus on Media and Democracy, University of Amsterdam (UvA). He co-directs the AI, Media & Democracy Lab at UvA as well as the national research program (2022-2032) Public Values in the Algorithmic Society algosoc. He is also the Scientific Director of the Digital Democracy Centre at the University of Southen Denmark. His research interests include the role of data and artificial intelligence in democratic processes, microtargeting, comparative journalism research, the effects of news, public opinion and European integration. He is recipient of the Swanson Career Achievement Award (ICA, 2018), the NeFCA Career Award (2019), and he is an elected Fellow of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, the International Communication Association, and the Royal Holland Society of Sciences.

He has published 250+ articles in international peer-reviewed journals and several books with university presses. He has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University, Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Zurich, and University of Southern Denmark. He has lectured in a dozen countries and frequently appears in (inter)national news media. He was the Editor in Chief of Political Communication (2014-2020).

Philile Ntombela (Africa Check)

is a researcher at Africa Check. Her previous research and advocacy work centred on national and provincial budget policies. She has presented her findings on the government’s social spending to various Parliamentary Committees on several occasions, and has been involved in the research and drafting of submissions to two commissions of inquiry. Philile has bylines in major South African newspapers and has been interviewed on various radio and TV news stations. She holds a bachelor of arts in English, media, and culture studies from the University of KwaZulu-Natal; an honours in political communication from the University of Cape Town; and a masters in political studies, specialising in development policy, from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Alberto Rabbachin (European Commission)

Joined the European Commission in 2013 where he is currently a Deputy Head of Unit. He works mainly on the strategy to tackle disinformation, including the Code of Practice on Disinformation. Before joining the Commission, Alberto was a Marie Curie Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Benjamin Shultz (The American Sunlight Project)

serves as Lead Researcher at The American Sunlight Project and as an expert on artificial intelligence for the Council of Europe. He previously worked as a Lead Analyst on Deloitte's public sector Counter-Foreign Malign Influence Team and was selected as a 2023 NATO Youth Summit Delegate. Ben holds an M.A. in International Relations and a Master of Public Administration from Syracuse University.

Giovanni Zagni, PhD (EDMO, Pagella Politica, Facta)

is a journalist based in Milan, Italy, and the Director of the fact-checking projects Pagella Politica and Facta. He is a member of the Executive board of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), and served as the Chair of its Task Force on the European Parliamentary Elections 2024. He was a member of the MSI-INF Committee of Experts on the Integrity of Online Information established in 2022 by the Council of Europe, and took part as an expert in the Monitoring Unit on Disinformation around Covid-19 established by the Italian government in 2020. He is the coauthor of three books on fact-checking and disinformation.