Deputy Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, UNESCO
Mogens Schmidt is Deputy Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information and Director of the Division for Freedom of Expression, Democracy and Peace at UNESCO since 2003.
He was born in Holstebro, Denmark on 15 February 1950. He studied Scandinavian Literature and Languages at the University of Aarhus, Denmark from 1968 to 1974 when he graduated. From 1974 until 1981, he was teaching Literature and Mass Communication at the University of Aarhus. In 1981, he was nominated as Head of the Unit for Development of Curricula at the Humanistic Faculty of the University of Aarhus. He stayed in this position until he was nominated Managing Director of the Danish School of Journalism in 1988.
During his period at the helm of the Danish School of Journalism, he was one of the initiators of establishing the European Journalism Training Association in 1989. His dedication to international collaboration was also expressed in the substantial media and journalism training assistance projects run by the Danish School of Journalism in the Baltics, in Central and Eastern Europe and in the Balkans as well as in Mongolia, Mozambique and Cambodia. In 1995, he was called to assume the position of Director at the European Journalism Centre in Maastricht, The Netherlands.
In 2001, Schmidt joined the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) as Assistant Director General with special responsibility for the press freedom work of WAN and for its editorial organisation, the World Editors Forum. He also served as Chief Financial Officer until he joined UNESCO in 2003.
Mogens Schmidt has comprehensive experience with administration of media development and journalism training programmes. He has also extensive experience from project work in developing countries and in countries in transition both in the design and the implementation phase. He is the author of many books and articles on issues related to journalism, mass communication and press freedom.
- Session: Digital Divide and Social Exclusion, 20th September.
