The Eric Barendt Annual Media Law Lecture - Nani Jansen Reventlow: 'Free speech, power, and liberation'

Discussions about free speech often focus on what is permissible: what can be said, what cannot, and how should this be regulated? In this year’s Eric Barendt Annual Media Law Lecture, Nani Jansen Reventlow will look at the way free speech facilitates public debate and supports other rights through a lens that asks questions about power. Who gets to speak, who gets to be heard, and who decides what is amplified or silenced? Looking at the relationship between free speech and power in publishing, protest, and LGBTQI+ rights, Nani’s lecture will reflect on free speech, regulation, and liberation both online and off.

Nani Jansen Reventlow is an award-winning human rights lawyer specialised in strategic litigation at the intersection of human rights, social justice, and technology.

Nani is the founder of Systemic Justice, a new organisation that seeks to radically transform how the law works for communities fighting for racial, social and economic justice. Nani has an extensive background in promoting human rights in the digital context and in defending journalists and activists in some of the most repressive environments in the world. She previously founded and built the Digital Freedom Fund, which supports digital rights litigation. Her standard-setting work seeking to decolonise the digital rights field in Europe and breaking down the silos between social justice groups and digital rights activists saw her listed on Politico’s 2021 list of visionary tech leaders in Europe.

Throughout her career, Nani has seen first-hand how unequal power structures in society affect people’s ability to exercise their rights and achieve justice when they have been harmed or wronged. By broadening access to judicial remedies and strengthening the ability of communities to leverage the power of the courts, Nani’s new organisation, Systemic Justice will help dismantle the power structures that underpin racial, social, and economic injustice and work to develop a more just society.

Through her public speaking, academic work and teaching at some of the world’s leading universities, Nani is shaping the next generation of human rights lawyers and public policy professionals. Drawing on a long and distinguished career as a litigator and expert on the intersection between human rights, social justice and technology, her mentorship provides students a hands-on understanding of the challenges facing human rights and social justice movements in the twenty-first century.