Marju Lauristin
Marju Lauristin is a member of the European Parliament and a former member of both the Estonian cabinet and the country’s Riigikogu (Parliament). She occupies a highly visible role in the development of European Union data protection initiatives, including the E-Privacy Regulation that many predict could be as influential as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Lauristin is vice-chair of the Group of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament. She is an active member of the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, and serves as the committee’s rapporteur for the Data Protection Directive and the E-Privacy Regulation. She also served as the committee’s rapporteur on its opinion about contracts for the supply of digital content.
Lauristin’s 40-year academic career spans social sciences and media studies, including audience surveys and content analysis. She has been a professor emeritus at Estonia’s Tartu University since 1995. In addition, she is currently involved in a research project about the future of the cultural press in Estonia.
She was one of the establishing members of ‘Rahvarinne’ in 1988, the first large-scale independent political movement in Estonia since the beginning of the Soviet occupation. After Estonia regained its independence in 1991, Lauristin served as chairman of the Estonian Social Democratic Party, deputy speaker of the parliament, and minister of social affairs.
Lauristin holds a doctoral degree in journalism and has been a professor of social communication at Tartu University in Estonia since 2003.