Matthias Spielkamp

Matthias Spielkamp works as a journalist and entrepreneur in Berlin. He is co-founder and publisher of the online magazine iRights.info – about legal issues in the digital world, which in 2006 received the Grimme Online Award, Germany’s most prestigious award for online journalism.

In 2011, Matthias co-founded the independent think tank iRights.Lab, where he designs solutions for dealing with the challenges of digitisation our societies face – for stakeholders from business, politics, the public sector and civic society.

As a consultant and trainer Matthias has worked with journalists in Germany, South-Eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East for 15 years.

Matthias is frequently invited to speak at conferences like re:publica or the Global Media Forum and conceived and organised the Young Media Summits 2010 and 2011 in Cairo, Egypt. He testified before three committees of the German Bundestag on future developments of journalism, online journalism and copyright regulation.

From September 2015 to February 2016, Matthias was a Fellow of Stiftung Mercator and visiting researcher at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG).

He is a member of the American Council on Germany as a former John J. McCloy Fellow, serves on the governing board of the German section of Reporters Without Borders and the advisory councils of the Whistleblower Network and the newly founded Internet TV and radio station Sender.

Matthias has co-authored three books on journalism and copyright regulation and holds master’s degrees in Journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder and Philosophy from the Free University of Berlin.