EPRA Staff

EPRA EXECUTIVE BOARD

EPRA Chairperson: Dunja Mijatovic (BA)

Director of Broadcasting Division, Communications Regulatory Agency of Bosnia Herzegovina (CRA)

Dunja Mijatovic was elected as EPRA Chairperson at the 25th Meeting in Prague on 18 May 2007. She previously occupied the position of Vice-Chairperson since May 2003 and had been re-elected in May 2005 for a period of two years.

Dunja Mijatovic is Director of Broadcasting at the Communications Regulatory Agency in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She joined the Independent Media Commission IMC, a predecessor of the CRA, on its establishment in 1998, and since then she has been involved in media regulation in BiH and abroad. Dunja holds a Master's Degree in European Studies after studies at the Universities of Sarajevo, Sussex, Bologna and the London School of Economics, which she completed with a thesis on the "Internet and Freedom of Expression". She is a member of several professional associations and has written numerous articles on topics such as the Digital Divide and the use of hate language and incitement to religious and national hatred.

Further to the EPRA Statutes, the Chairperson chairs the meetings and represents the EPRA in its external relations. He/she is also responsible for the agenda and the minutes of the meetings.

EPRA Senior Vice-Chairperson: Jürgen Brautmeier (DE)

Deputy Director, Media Authority of Northrhine-Westphalia (LfM NRW), Germany

Jürgen Brautmeier was elected as EPRA Vice-Chairperson at the 25th EPRA Meeting in Prague on 18 May 2007.

Jürgen Brautmeier is since 1999 Deputy Director of the Media Authority of Northrhine-Westphalia (LfM NRW) which he first joined in 1987. He is currently Head of the Department Law, Technologies, Support and Supervision. After majoring in History and English in Düsseldorf and Cambridge, he completed his Ph.D. in Düsseldorf about the English occupation in post WWII Northrhine-Westphalia.
From 1982 to 1987, he was scientific analyst for the CDU group in the North-Rhine Westphalian Parliament. In parallel to his career within the LfM, he has been guest lecturer at the Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf, the Lomonossow University of Moskow and the St Petersburg University. He also participated as an independent expert on behalf of the Council of Europe to numerous missions dealing with the drafting of broadcasting laws in Central and Eastern Europe.
At the end of 2006, he was appointed Board member of the Medienrat, the regulatory authority of the German-speaking Community of Belgium, and became its Deputy Chairperson in July 2007.

EPRA Vice-Chairperson: Andris Mellakauls (LV)

Andris Mellakauls was elected as EPRA Vice-Chairperson at the 25th EPRA Meeting in Prague on 18 May 2007.

Before being elected to the National Broadcasting Council of Latvia in 2001, Andris Mellakauls spent 20 years with Time-Warner, 15 of those in the United Kingdom before "repatriating" in 1995 to become Warner Music Europe's eyes and ears in the Baltic. Andris was also director of business development at the Creative Laboratory ad agency until Latvia joined the European Union and work in the Council took precedence.
He is currently Head of international affairs.

EPRA Vice-Chairperson: Sebastiano Sortino (IT)

Commissioner, Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni - AGCOM, Italy

Sebastiano Sortino was elected as EPRA Vice-Chairperson at the 25th EPRA Meeting in Prague on 18 May 2007.

Sebastiano Sortino was elected by the Italian Parliament as member (Commissioner) of the Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM) in 2005, within which he belongs to the Commission for Services and Products.
After reading for the bar at the University of Catania, he specialised in economics in Italy and abroad. He worked for more than ten years for the Confindustria (i.e. the leading entrepreneurial organization in Italy) as the person in charge of the small entreprises sector. He was then in charge of the relationships between the Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (Italian oil national company) and the regions and further public entities during five years. From January 1997 to Febuary 2005, he was Director general of the Italian Federation of Newspaper and Periodical Publishers (FIEG), and represented the FIEG both in the Italian public bodies in charge of implementing press law and at the international level. He was also member of the National Council for Economic Affairs and Labour (CNEL).

Secretary to the EPRA

Emmanuelle has been Secretary to the EPRA since 1996 and is currently working full-time from the new Secretariat's location in Strasbourg. She has been working in parallel as a project manager at the European Institute for the Media (EIM) with focus on European media regulation and policies until 2002 when she started working full time for the EPRA. She studied media law at the University of Poitiers and did a post-graduate course in European Studies at the University of Aachen, Germany.
She has written several publications and articles dealing with comparative broadcasting regulation in Europe and regulatory authorities.

Free-lance research support to the EPRA Secretariat

Deirdre Kevin joined the EPRA secretariat in September 2004 for two days a week. She has been a project manager at the European Institute for the Media since 1998 working in the Communication Policy department. Deirdre completed a BA in Communication Studies at Dublin City University and a post-graduate Masters in European Economic and Public Affairs at University College Dublin. The focus of her research has been the development of a European Public Sphere and media coverage of European affairs, and media policy and regulation, most recently media ownership regulation. She has managed projects and has numerous publications in the field of European media. Deirdre was also co-editor of the journal Trends in Communications. She is occasionally providing free-lance research support to the EPRA Secretariat from Düsseldorf.