Baroness Helena Kennedy of The Shaws KC has been appointed as the new chair of the High-Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom, succeeding Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, the body’s inaugural chair. 

The independent advisory body, which has been guiding the Media Freedom Coalition since its inception in 2019, receives its directives from the coalition, currently co-chaired by Estonia and Germany.

Neuberger, who previously served as president of the UK Supreme Court and is an active arbitrator at One Essex Court, resigned in August amid controversy over his continued participation as a judge on Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal (CFA), fuelled by its decision to uphold the convictions of former media mogul Jimmy Lai and six other pro-democracy campaigners for an unauthorised assembly in 2019.

“It is undesirable that focus on my position should detract from the panel’s critical and impactful work,” he stated upon his resignation.

Kennedy, a founding member of the panel, has been an active contributor to its endeavours both as a member and in her role as director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), which serves as the panel’s secretariat. 

In the wake of Lai and his co-defendants’ convictions being upheld, she said: “The law in Hong Kong is being weaponised against the pro-democracy movement. UK judges should not sit on the court, nor should UK lawyers participate in prosecuting these cases.”

Kennedy’s legal career is distinguished and multifaceted. As one of the UK’s leading human rights practitioners, she has defended clients in several landmark cases. Her contributions extend beyond the courtroom; she is a member of the House of Lords, and a recent appointee to the Order of the Thistle, Scotland’s highest chivalric order. 

Her academic roles have included Master of the Bench at Gray’s Inn and Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, at which university she founded the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights.

Her leadership extends to numerous significant roles, including being the former chair of the British Council and JUSTICE and the UK section of the International Commission of Jurists. 

In 2019, she led a United Nations team investigating the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and has been the IBAHRI’s director since 2019, working alongside notable figures like media lawyer Mark Stephens CBE and Anne Ramberg, the former secretary-general of the Swedish Bar Association.

The panel’s deputy chairs, commercial barrister and academic Can Yeginsu, of London’s 3 Verulam Buildings, and New York-based Debevoise & Plimpton partner Catherine Amirfar, said: “We are delighted that our brilliant colleague, Helena Kennedy, will be taking on this new role,” they commented. “At this critical five-year juncture, she is ideally placed to propel the panel’s important work forward.”

Neuberger is one of the few overseas non-permanent judges left sitting on the CFA following the resignations of Lord Sumption and Lord Collins of Mapesbury earlier this year and the subsequent retirement of Canadian counterpart Beverley McLachlan. Lord Phillips, another retired Supreme Court judge, retired from the court at the end of September.