Rebecca MacKinnon

Rebecca MacKinnon is a veteran journalist, China hand, and online media pioneer. She currently leads the new media programme at the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre. A frequent public speaker, writer and media commentator, MacKinnon conducts research and writing on the future of journalism in the Internet age, the Internet in China, and corporate responsibility for privacy and free expression. More information about her recent work can be found on her blog at http://jmsc.hku.hk/blogs/circ/people/rebecca-mackinnon.

Prior to joining the JMSC in January 2007 she was a Research Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, where she co-founded GlobalVoicesOnline.org, an award-winning citizen media network. Fluent in Mandarin, MacKinnon worked for CNN in Northeast Asia for over a decade, serving as CNN’s Beijing Bureau Chief and Correspondent from 1998-2001 and as CNN’s Tokyo Bureau Chief and Correspondent from 2001-03. She has covered major news events in North and South Korea, Pakistan, and the Philippines. MacKinnon began her Asian journalism career in Taiwan, where she spent a year as a Fullbright scholar and freelanced for many publications, including Newsweek. She is originally from Tempe, Arizona, and a graduate of Harvard.