Our Trustees

Gayathry Venkiteswaran is a journalist and activist and sits on the Governance committee of the International Board of ARTICLE 19.  She is a lecturer at the University of Nottingham Malaysia, where she is also a PhD candidate with the focus of her research on media reforms in Southeast Asia.  Prior to this, she was the executive director of the Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Press Alliance, working on press freedom and access to information in the region. Before joining SEAPA, she headed a Malaysian press freedom organisation, the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), worked as a journalist and taught media history and journalism in a number of private colleges and universities. She was curator of the freedom of expression content on Asia and the Pacific for the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) based in Toronto, and is co-editing a book on the media in transition in Burma with two other editors, scheduled for publication in 2019.

Gayathry has authored a research paper for the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) on Freedom of assembly and association online in India, Malaysia and Pakistan: Trends, Challenges and Recommendations (2016), and has presented extensively in international fora on issues related to media freedom and freedom of expression in Southeast Asia. She has an MA (International Relations) from the Australian National University and a Bachelor of Mass Communication from University Sains Malaysia.

Gayathry Chairs the Governance Committee of the International Board

Abir Ghattas is a Lebanese human rights activist and a technologist and the Information Security Director for Human Rights Watch.  Prior to her current role she was the communications and outreach director for Raseef22 a PAN Arab independent media platform and also the outreach director for Majal, a network of digital platforms centered on securing freedom of expression and access to information in the MENA region. Abir’s work focuses on women’s rights, digital rights, and the intersection of gender and tech. She sits on the grant advisory board of Access Now and Open Technology Fund’s “Red Team” board.

Charles Onyango-Obbo is a Ugandan journalist and writer with over 30 years of experience, who lives and works in Nairobi.

He is currently developing a museum of African historical figures, “The Wall of Great Africans”, part of which is published on Facebook.

Onyango-Obbo, has an MA in Journalism from the American University in Cairo, and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.

He was co-founder and Managing Editor of The Monitor, Uganda’s most successful independent newspaper. He has campaigned long for media freedom, in a career that saw him arrested several times over his newspaper’s reporting, and appearing in court over a record 120 times, during which he and a colleague won a definitive case in the Uganda Constitutional Court protecting freedom of expression.

In 2003 moved to work with Nation Media Group (NMG) in Nairobi after it bought a controlling stake in The Monitor, as the group’s first Executive Editor for Media Convergence and Africa project. In 2014 he joined Mail & Guardian (South Africa),  to launch its pan-African unit Mail & Guardian Africa.

In June 2016 he launched Africapedia, a story ideation startup, in Nairobi. He writes three weekly columns published in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, focusing mostly on democratic transitions, technology, and disruptive trends across various sectors in the continent.

He is the author of three books, and a fourth, exploring the exploits of  pioneering journalists over 150 years in 16 eastern African countries, is being published in July.

He sits on the board of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Nairobi, and the advisory board of media innovation hub Baraza Lab.

Onyango-Obbo joined the Article 19 international board in June 2021.

Mark is Director of Sustainable Finance at Cass Business School, City, University of London.  He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and holds their postgraduate diploma in charity accounting. He has been responsible for the business school’s work on developing financial sustainability in charities, and has led the social investment and social finance work for the past four years. He also leads the ICAEW accredited MSc module on Advanced, Audit, Accounting and Taxation.

Mark has extensive experience as management consultant for industry, government and with many non-profit organisations – from the UN and CARE International, to Age UK and the Children’s Society – as well as many commercial organisations such as Virgin Airlines, and WS Atkins.  He has also advised government at the Department of Work and Pension and Department of Education and Skills.

He was Director for Finance and Operational Support for CARE International UK from 2007-2014, (and Joint Acting CEO in 2014).  During the earlier part of his career Mark worked for KMPG from 1996-2004 in consulting and audit, where he was also part of the Charity Management Team.

He is passionate about giving people tools to help themselves and developing a voice for civil society, and helped to establish www.lendwithcare.org.uk, the peer to peer lending platform.

Mark sits on the Finance and General Purposes Committee for the International Board.