Defending journalists with the OSCE: A conversation with Cecilia Vera Lagomarsino
Defending journalists with the OSCE
In an era of growing threats against journalists, what does meaningful protection look like on the ground? In this episode, we sit down with Cecilia Vera Lagomarsino of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media to unpack how international institutions respond to the mounting risks faced by media professionals. From on-the-ground fieldwork to diplomatic corridors, we explore the OSCE’s regional initiatives, institutional tools, and field missions designed to safeguard press freedom across Europe, Central Asia, and beyond. We’ll hear about journalist safety as a systemic issue and how the OSCE integrates early warning mechanisms, legal reform, and youth participation into its broader media freedom mandate.
🎙️ Hosted by Georgios Karagiorgos
Vox Civica-Where Democracy has a Voice is a podcast about how democracy is lived, tested, and reinvented in the modern world. It brings listeners inside the conversations and conflicts that define civic life today — from the streets where protests begin to the institutions where policies take shape.
Each episode features voices from across journalism, activism, academia, and digital-rights movements, exploring how people confront power, defend freedoms, and adapt democratic values to an age of surveillance, misinformation, and rapid technological change.
In short, it’s a space where critical thinking meets civic imagination — tracing the struggles, ideas, and collaborations that keep democracy alive in the 21st century.
About the Guest
Cecilia Vera Lagomarsino currently serves as Media Freedom Project Officer at the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM). She holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the University of Milan, Italy, during which she spent one year studying in Bucharest, Romania, through the Erasmus Programme. Prior to joining the OSCE RFoM, she worked at the Permanent Delegation of Italy to the OSCE, at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in the Research and Migration Law Department, at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, and at the European Parliament’s Information Office. She has also participated in several OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Missions. Her areas of expertise include gender equality, media, and the safety of journalists.
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