Benedicte Berner is currently project director for the "Campus" at the College de France, Paris, and member of the European board of Academics at Risk and part of the French Committee, PAUSE. She chaired, for fifteen years, till 2022, Civil Rights Defenders (CRD), the major Swedish NGO for Human Rights with a focus on freedom of expression, rule of law and non-discrimination. She has lectured on Media, Democracy and Development at l’Institut d’Etudes Politiques of Paris (Sciences Po) and at Harvard University. She previously worked with the European Institute for the Media in Dusseldorf on issues related to freedom of expression, leading media monitoring missions for the European Commission during the post war elections in the Balkans and in transitional countries of the former Soviet Union. Furthermore, she has participated in the training of journalists on the role of media during elections, and media ethics in the Middle East and Northern Africa.
Benedicte lived in Poland 84-87, teaching at the University of Warsaw, in India 87-89 working with women issues and for five years in the Soviet Union/Russia (89-94). She travelled extensively both in Russia and in the new republics of the former Soviet Union. The media situation in Russia, the CIS and in the Balkans as well as the question of how to effectively support development of independent media and the rule of law in these regions has been a major focus in her work. In 1997, she helped establish the Gerd Bucerius Award for Professional Journalism in Eastern and Central Europe, and was member of the jury until 2002. The Award created by “Die Zeit“ foundation and the Norwegian foundation “ Fritt Ord “ (Free Word), is one of the most important prizes for journalists working under censorship or in difficult conditions in these regions.