Our team
Our team is the heart of Lawfare Journalism. Each member brings a unique perspective and a wealth of experience to help us tackle the complex challenges in journalism today.
Lúcia Mesquita
(Principal Investigator)
Lusófona University / Federal University of São Paulo
Lucia Monteiro Mesquita is a postdoctoral researcher in communication and journalism studies, with expertise in journalism safety, media literacy, information disorders, and the political economy of journalism and the media. She leads the project’s conceptual development, research design, and international coordination.
Mathias-Felipe de Lima-Santos
(Co–Principal Investigator)
University of New South Wales / Federal University of São Paulo
Mathias-Felipe de Lima-Santos is a scholar specialising in data journalism, computational methods, and media analysis. In this project, he contributes to data infrastructure, large-scale content analysis, and methodological innovation for mapping Lawfare against journalism across regions.
Stephen Wolgast
(Co–Principal Investigator)
University of Kansas
Stephen Wolgast is a journalism scholar and Knight Chair with extensive experience in press freedom and journalistic practice. He contributes expertise on comparative analysis and the professional impacts of legal intimidation on journalists. Wolgast is also the leader of the United States research team.
Bruce Mutsvairo
(Scientific Advisor)
Utrecht University
Bruce Mutsvairo is Professor of Media, Politics, and the Global South in the Faculty of Humanities at Utrecht University. He provides senior academic oversight to the project, ensuring its scientific quality, theoretical robustness, and alignment with international scholarly standards.
Janara Nicoletti
Researcher
Within the project, Janara Nicoletti is a member of the scientific and writing team. Drawing on extensive experience in journalism precarity and journalism safety in both Europe and Brazil, she works closely with the data team to ensure the scientific rigour and methodological soundness of the project’s empirical and theoretical research.
David Alonso del Barrio
Researcher
David Alonso del Barrio is a data scientist specializing in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and the social dimensions of AI. In this project, he develops the data processing pipeline, overseeing the collection, cleaning, and large-scale analysis of media data.
Deborah Dwyer
Researcher
Deborah Dwyer, PhD, is a career communications professional and journalism scholar who contributes to research initiatives focused on contemporary topics related to media freedom and journalistic accountability. Her previous work includes qualitative and quantitative projects concerning threats to American journalism, the effects of corporate media ownership, and ethical disruptions to traditional news practices. She supports the United States research team.
Tatiana Chervyakova
Researcher
Lusófona University
Tatiana is a PhD candidate in Communication Science at Universidade Lusófona, Portugal, and a research fellow at CICANT, involved in EU-funded projects — MeDeMAP and CRESCINE. BSc in Journalism (Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia), political journalism and media business majors, MSc in Media Management (Università della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, Switzerland). Main research interests: political economies of media, media systems, and contemporary methods of censorship.
The consortium
The project is supported by a multinational network of academic and research institutions, including the following ones.
