Marija Ristic is the executive director of Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), a network of seven non-governmental organisations promoting freedom of speech, human rights and democratic values in Southeast and Central Europe. Ristic oversees the activities and communications within the Network and represents it publicly. Under her leadership, BIRN won numerous awards, including the European Press Prize, while the Network expended its coverage beyond the Balkans – to Central and South Europe. As a director, Ristic in particular focused on development of digital rights and tech programme, empowerment of local media through capacity building and citizens’ engagement and expansion of human rights focused programmes. In 2019, Ristic won Press Freedom Award from the Reporters Without Borders.

She graduated from the Geneva Academy for International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, the University of Geneva and the University of Belgrade and was a fellow at the Free University Berlin and Columbia University New York.

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