KAMPALA – Ms Catherine Anite the Executive Director Freedom of Expression Hub, an NGO that strives to promote and defend freedom of expression within and beyond East Africa has been appointed to the advisory council of the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law (ICNL).
The news of her appointment was shared on the Freedom of Expression official Facebook page.
“Congratulations to our executive director who has been appointed to the advisory council of the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law,” read part of the post.
The Washington based organization works to improve the legal environment for civil society, philanthropy and public participation around the world.
Anite joins eminent person from around the world serving as a key strategic resource for ICNL staff and board.
Catherine Anite is a Human Rights advocate and freedom of expression expert. She is the Founding Director of the Freedom of Expression Hub, a regional not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote and defend the right to freedom of expression through research and documentation, advocacy, strategic litigation, strategic collaborations and capacity building initiatives.
In July 2019, she was appointed to the international High-Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom by Lord Neuberger, the former Supreme Court President of the UK and Deputy Chair, UK Special Envoy on Media Freedom, Amal Clooney.
The remit of the Panel is to provide advice and recommendations to governments to prevent and address abuses of media freedom and its work can be accessed online.
Catherine has previously worked as Senior Programme Officer, Media, Safety and Protection at ARTICLE 19 and as Chief Legal Officer at the Human Rights Network for Journalists in Uganda, where she founded the legal department.
She has extensively trained journalists, media practitioners, lawyers and judges on different freedom of expression, information and media freedom standards in various countries and has engaged in public interest litigation on free speech issues in national and regional courts, represented journalists, pursued policy analysis, and spearheaded national and regional advocacy campaigns on behalf of journalists and other media practitioners.
She has served as a senior judge at the International media law moot court at the University of Oxford and facilitated at the Annenberg-Oxford Media Policy summer school program at the University of Oxford.
Catherine is a 2014 Obama Fellow, a 2016 Legal Research Fellow at the Centre for Law and Democracy in Canada and at the International Centre for Not-for-Profit Law in Washington D.C.
She’s also an expert for the Global Freedom of Expression project at Columbia University, New York and is a Board of Director at the Media Challenge Initiative, a youth-driven organization building the next generation of African journalists.
Catherine earned an LLM in International Human Rights Law from Notre Dame University, USA graduating Magna Cum Laude, an LLB with honors from Makerere University, and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Centre, Kampala, Uganda.
