The Journalism Masterclass is one of the key-programmes of the Ratiu Forum. It aims to address the challenges and opportunities of investigative journalism in Romania and the CEE region and to support journalists in strengthening practical skills.
THE RATIU FORUM JOURNALISM MASTERCLASS
20-22 March 2026
RATIU CENTRE, TURDA, ROMANIA
The Ratiu Forum – a partnership between LSE IDEAS (London School of Economics) and the Ratiu Foundation – hosted the 2026 Journalism Masterclass on 20-22 March at the Ratiu Democracy Centre in Turda, Romania. The event, coordinated by John Lloyd, Contributing Editor at the Financial Times and Co-founder of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (University of Oxford), focused on the theme “Journalism in a Time of Turbulence.”
The panellists and speakers list included a leading group of Romanian and international journalists and experts from the region.
John Lloyd co-founded The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford in 2006, where he was Director of Journalism and a Senior Research Fellow. He was a freelance reporter in Belfast in the early 1970s, later joining LBC Radio as a reporter. He also worked for London Weekend Television, serving as a reporter on The London Programme and as a producer on Weekend World.
He is currently a Contributing Editor at The Financial Times, where he was also a Labour and Industrial Editor, as well as an East Europe Editor, Moscow Bureau Chief and founding editor of the FT Weekend Magazine. He also edited both Time Out and The New Statesman.
APPLICATION
The Masterclass was primarily aimed at Romanian journalists, with applications also open to media professionals from Moldova, Ukraine, and the wider region.
Selection Criteria:
- Proven experience in investigating systemic issues, corruption, or matters of public interest
- Ambition to grow and improve as an investigative journalist
- Commitment to fully engage in the Masterclass and benefit from the knowledge and expertise shared
MASTERCLASS SESSIONS
Journalism in a Time of Turbulence
A claim is often made, that the media are under attack, and media freedom is threatened. Yet critical and investigative journalisms remain strong, often well-funded and rewarded with prizes. How large is the real threat?
Sessions
Saturday, 21 March
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Defenceless or not? Safeguarding Democracy in the Age of Social Networks
Journalism and Politics in the Democracies
Journalism and Politics in Authoritarian and Despotic States
Disinformation and Its Influence on Democracy
Sunday, 22 March
President Trump and His Effect on Journalism
Keynote Address: The Death of Journalism? How to Save Media from Authoritarians, Oligarchs and Algorithms
Is Journalism Doing its Job?
Conclusions and Closing Remarks
SPONSORS
Share
SPEAKERS
John Lloyd co-founded The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford in 2006, where he was Director of Journalism and a Senior Research Fellow. Mr. Lloyd is a Contributing editor at The Financial Times, and Chairman of the School of Civic Education (Russia). He was a freelance reporter in Belfast in the early 1970s. Mr. Lloyd was a reporter on LBC Radio, worked at London Weekend TV as a reporter on the London Programme and producer on Weekend World. At the Financial Times he has been Labour Editor, Labour and Industrial Editor, East Europe Editor, Moscow Bureau Chief; and founding editor of the FT Weekend Magazine. He has edited both Time Out and the New Statesman. Mr. Lloyd graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Master’s Degree in English Literature.
Pavol Szalai is driven by a sense of public interest, strives for impact, and believes in democratic debate. At the global press freedom watchdog, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), he covers the eastern part of the European Union and the Balkans. Based in Prague, he manages a network of correspondents across Europe, with whom he defends trustworthy journalism against authoritarianism and propaganda. Guided by innovation and a strategic approach, he contributes to RSF’s public communications and institutional advocacy. On a daily basis, he works to help threatened journalists, to improve media sustainability and hence to protect citizens’ right to trustworthy information. Together with the RSF local and international partners, Pavol has made a difference: bolstering the safety of French reporters covering protests, saving a journalist from judicial harassment in Poland, sounding the alarm about Russian propaganda in Serbia, putting press freedom in Greece on the Brussels agenda, and pushing the EU to adopt a strong European Media Freedom Act.
Inspired by Slovakia’s fight for freedom, Pavol has always aimed to put his academic training from Bratislava, Brno, New York and Paris at the service of democracy in Europe—whether as an analyst, journalist, civil servant or press freedom campaigner. His commitment to the public good was recognised and further strengthened by the “White Crow” Prize, which he was awarded in 2017 together with his former colleague Zuzana Hlávková for whistleblowing on rigged public tenders in Slovakia.
Anna Engelke serves as Deputy Head of the ARD Capital Studio in Berlin and is one of the hosts of the political TV magazine „Bericht aus Berlin“. She is an experienced journalist who reported for many years as an NDR correspondent in Bonn, Berlin, and Washington, D.C., with a strong focus on security and defense policy. From March 2017 to March 2022, she served as spokesperson for German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Since late 2022, she has been co‑host of “Streitkräfte und Strategien”, one of ARD’s (public German broadcaster) most‑listened‑to podcasts.
Dr. Stefan Hofmann is Head of the Romania Office, Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Dr. Stefan Hofmann was born in 1965 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, an industrial city in the south of Germany. He studied political science and sociology in Heidelberg and Hamburg, complementing his academic training with research stays at the University of Salamanca in Spain. In 1998, he earned his doctorate from the University of
Hamburg.
He subsequently completed a traineeship at the Westfälischer Anzeiger newspaper in Hamm and went on to work as an editor for several newspapers in both Germany and Spain. In mid2002, Hofmann joined the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS). One year later, he was posted to the foundation’s office in Mexico City, and later became the KAS regional representative for Guatemala.
Since December 2006, the father of two has headed the Oldenburg civic education unit of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. From January 2011 to June 2025, he served as the KAS regional representative for Baden-Württemberg and directed the Baden-Württemberg Political Education Forum in Stuttgart. Following preparations for a new international assignment, Dr. Hofmann has served as Head of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s Romania Office, based in Bucharest, since October 2025.
Mihai Marc is a public relations and media communication professional based in Bucharest. With a background in communication and media studies in both Romania and Germany, he has worked across public, diplomatic, and civic sectors – including the Romanian public television, the German Embassy, and the Austrian Economic Chamber – always at the intersection of media outreach, public messaging, and international affairs. He currently coordinates civic and political cooperation projects for the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Romania. He focuses on public communication trainings, political analysis, and supporting media freedom initiatives.
Paul Bell CVO is a political consultant and writer. He began his career as a journalist during the apartheid era in South Africa, working on leading dailies, including the Rand Daily Mail, Business Day, and The Johannesburg Star. He covered the country’s constitutional negotiations as it made its transition to majority rule, then moved to a monthly political journal, interviewing leading politicians as the country navigated the early years of its transition, and winning two national awards for his writing. In 1994 he took a sabbatical to serve as information director for the national election commission which oversaw the country’s first democratic elections. In 2000, he joined a communications company in London. This led to an eight-year engagement in Iraq during the American occupation, in which he built and led an information and psychological operations unit in the theatre, the largest single operation of its kind in a theatre of war since World War Two. After leading this operation, and his company as its chief executive, he returned to the field, working on a succession of projects focused on counter-radicalisation, and human and democratic development elsewhere in the Middle East, North Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya. In 2018 he became principal foreign advisor in the establishment of a new opposition party in Georgia. He stayed on in Tbilisi, working with civil society groups on a range of pro-democracy programmes and observing the authoritarian overthrow of Georgia’s European aspirations. In 2022, shortly before the outbreak of war in Ukraine, he was sent to Kyiv to manage a campaign in support of recruitment to the national territorial reserve. In 2023 he was appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order for services to charity. In 2024 he returned to London where he continues to write for the NATO Defence Strategic Communications Journal, has finished a political novel set in Georgia, and is working on two major projects in Africa.
Pilita Clark
Pilita Clark is an associate editor and business columnist at the FT where she writes on corporate life and climate change. Formerly the FT’s environment correspondent, her writing has won awards in the US and Asia and in 2019 she was named Environment Journalist of the Year for the third year in a row at the British Press Awards. Before joining the FT, she was a Washington correspondent for Australian newspapers and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.
John M. Florescu has had a distinguished career as media entrepreneur, television producer and businessman with broad experience in the United States and Europe. In a career spanning over 30 years, Mr. Florescu has served as Executive Producer on more than 180 television specials, documentaries and interviews the latter of which included six past U.S. Presidents and several foreign heads of state including Mikhail Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, Nelson Mandela and Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr. Florescu’s notable Romanian productions include The King Who Tricked Hitler,” (2016) about King Michael of Romania and “Queen Marie: Heart of Romania” (2018). Recipient of a number of awards, Mr. Florescu’s recent films have run worldwide on the HISTORY channel and Amazon Prime. Mr. Florescu has contributed editorials about Eastern Europe for The Boston Globe, The Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle. He has participated in academic symposiums on the topic of Romania; has advised on Romanian studies for the Council on Foreign Relations and served as a US delegate with National Democratic Institute (NDI) during the first Romanian democratic elections in 1991. Mr. Florescu graduated from Boston College with a Bachelor’s (Magna Cum Laude, 1976) degree in History.
Liana Ganea, ActiveWatch, Romania
Liana is a freedom of speech activist, currently serving as the President of ActiveWatch. She has 25
years of experience in media freedom campaigning, legislative advocacy, training. Liana is co-author and
editor of a large number of analyses, guides and research reports on media freedom related issues. Liana
holds a BA in Journalism, an MA in Communication Sciences (both from the University of Bucharest) and
an MA in Human Rights (from the University College London).
Donald Macintyre worked for the UK Independent for more than 25 years and was successively the paper’s Editor, Chief Political Commentator, and Jerusalem Bureau Chief before freelancing. His books include Mandelson and the Making of New Labour (2000) and Gaza: Preparing for Dawn (2018), now updated as an e-book with the title Gaza: Past, Present and Future (2025).
Oana Marinescu is a Senior Consultant in Strategic Communication & Public Affairs in Romania. With 27 years of complex hands-on experience, she has pursued a special interest in strategic, institutional, and public policy communication as tools for democratic consolidation and resilience. In her public positions (Government Spokesperson; General Director for Public Diplomacy with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), as well as a consultant after July 2010, she has put her skills in communication strategy and training in the service of consolidating rule of law, developing a democratic public space, promoting European values and human rights. She also has extensive experience in complex business projects (energy, agriculture, retail, finance, etc.) and cultural projects, including Romania’s largest cultural event, the George Enescu International Festival and Competition.
Relevant Achievements & Experience:
– Secretary of State and Government’s Spokesperson, 2005 – 2007
– General Director for Public Diplomacy, Romania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2008 – 2010
– Managing Director & Founder of OMA Vision, a Strategic Communication & PR Company since 2010
– Strategic consulting to consolidate the Civil Society Organisations’ capacity
to advance their agenda: Give Life Association (reforming the healthcare system); Bucharest Community Foundation (citizen participation through an environment platform in Bucharest); eLiberare ( ghting human trafficking); ARCEN (promoting & protecting cultural patrimony and cultural life); Contraceptive and Sexual Education Society (promoting sexual education in Romania)
– Training and consulting for human rights CSOs in Republic of Moldova
– Strategic communication consulting to support democratic reforms in Republic of Moldova
– Founding member and strategist for the human rights coalition Respect. The Platform for Rights and Liberties, which led the successful communication campaign against the 2018 ultraconservative referendum that sought to amend Romania’s Constitution to de ne family as the result of a man-woman marriage.
Răzvan Martin, ActiveWatch, Romania
Răzvan is a freedom of speech activist. He joined ActiveWatch in 2002, focusing on issues related to
press freedom, protection of journalists, public media, media accountability, access to information, hate
speech and antidiscrimination. He directly assisted dozens of journalists, led impactful campaigns on
media freedom, and co-authored relevant media research reports.
Alison Mutler is a British journalist who has been working in Romania for almost 35 years. She is the current Director of the Romanian – English website, universul.net where she has worked for the last five years. During the 1989 anti-communist revolution, Ms. Mutler reported from Romania, Bulgaria, and Moldova for the British television station ITV. She moved to Romania in 1991 and joined the Associated Press as Bureau Chief where she worked for 25 years. Ms. Mutler is the past president of the now defunct Foreign Press Association. Ms. Mutler occasionally freelances for Coda Story and Radio Free Europe among others. Ms. Mutler graduated from the University of London with a Bachelor’s degree with a focus on Romanian language and literature.
Dan Perry is a veteran global media executive and communications professional with regular columns in Newsweek, the Forward, MediaIte, and the Jerusalem Post and publishes Ask Questions Later on Substack. Mr. Perry served as the Associated Press’s Middle East Editor, based in Cairo during the Arab Spring and resultant regional upheaval who, together with his colleagues, won numerous prizes for investigative and visual work including the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for an investigative all-format series on Yemen. Previously, he was AP’s regional chief in Europe-Africa and the Caribbean. He led AP’s move to digital distribution, content creation, social media and user experience. He supervised the Global Headline service and the Arabic, German, French and Puerto Rican Spanish language services. From 2001-2004, Mr. Perry served as the chairman of the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem, driving the industry’s efforts to ensure freedom of access with both the Israeli and Palestinian authorities during the Second Intifada. Mr. Perry has repeatedly served as a delegate at the World Economic Forum in Davos and other global leadership conferences, hosting panels with political and business leaders. His array of interview subjects range from Tony Blair, Mikhail Gorbachev and Benjamin Netanyahu to U2 front man Bono. Author of two books on Israel, his background includes computer science and artificial intelligence studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated from Columbia University with a Master’s of Science Degree.
Andrei Popoviciu is a freelance investigative reporter and international correspondent covering human rights, conflict and foreign affairs stories across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. His work has been published in The Guardian, Al Jazeera English, The Associated Press, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The New Humanitarian, Politico, Le Monde, The Observer, Der Spiegel and In These Times, among others. He has won or been nominated for multiple international journalism awards, including the European Press Prize, the Jan Kuciak Award, the Livingston Award, the Daphne Caruana Galizia Award, the IJ4EU Impact Award, the Fetisov Award, the Rory Peck Award and the One World Media Award, among others. He was on the Forbes Europe 30 under 30 list in 2023 and part of the European Young Leader (EYL40) class of 2025.
Alina Radu
Alina Radu is an investigative journalist, co-owner and manager of Ziarul de Gardă (ZdG), the largest investigative reporting outlet in Moldova. In 2025 ZdG received the European Press Prize for the best investigative story, after publishing high-profile investigations into Russia’s illegal financing of digital and offline armies to hijack the elections.
Alina Radu has extensive experience in independent media management, journalism freedom, investigative reporting impact. She also works on topics related to digital attacks, disinformation, FIMI and human rights.
Codruța Simina is 43 years old and an investigative journalist specialising in detecting online disinformation campaigns. She is the co-author of the Misreport newsletter, a weekly summary of falsehoods and disinformation tactics. She has previously worked in the newsrooms of PressOne and RISE Project, collaborates periodically with Scena9, and founded Public Record, an investigative journalism initiative, together with other journalists. She has been working as a journalist for 20 years and dreams of a sabbatical year to write a novel. Or two.
Robert C. Schwartz is the President Director General of the Romanian public broadcasting corporation, Societatea Română de Radiodifuziune, to which he was appointed in November 2025. He has worked for Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster, since 1992 and headed its Romanian editorial department from 2000 to 2020. Born in 1956 in Sibiu (Hermannstadt), Romania, he studied German language and literature at the University of Bucharest. He began his career as a teacher at the German Highschool in Bucharest and later became its headmaster after the fall of Nicolae Ceaușescu. In 1990 he represented the German minority in Romania’s first provisional parliament during the democratic transition. He has lived in Germany since 1991. Schwartz is a member of the Southeast Europe Society (Munich) and serves on the board of the German-Romanian Forum (Berlin). From 2023 to 2025 he was President of the German-Romanian Society in Berlin. In 2012 he received the Order of Cultural Merit (Commander), awarded by the Romanian president in recognition of his contribution to Romanian–German relations.
Markus Teglas serves since July 2025 as Deputy Head of Mission at the German Embassy in Bucharest. Prior to that, he was Minister Counselor at the German Embassy in Washington, DC. From 2013 to 2021, he worked as Chief of Staff for the Minister of State for Europe in the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. He joined the Federal Foreign Service in 2013. From 2008 to 2013 he worked as Chief of Staff in the German Bundestag. Markus Teglas holds a M.A. degree in European Studies (M.E.S.) from the Viadrina-University in Frankfurt/Oder and a M.A. degree in Philosophy from the Free University Berlin. He has also worked as editor in various German publishing houses.