Expert Council

Christos Christofides

Christos Christofides was born on 2 June 1954. He is married and has one daughter and one son. He graduated from the Grammar School, Nicosia (Science Section) and then studied Computer Science at Lamarque College, Nicosia. He has also participated in a large number of training courses, seminars and conferences on many and diverse topics, such as: journalism, journalistic ethics, immigration, asylum, discrimination, gender, peace etc. Christos’s working career has also been varied and diverse, including the Cyprus Petroleum Refineries and the Department of Meteorology, before joining  the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation. From 1999 to 2017, he worked as proofreader at “Phileleftheros” newspaper. From 1988 to 1991, he was a member of the editorial team of the weekly newspaper "Empros", mainly covering international affairs. He has also worked as part-time researcher a.

As an active trade unionist, Christos served on the board of directors and other bodies of trade unions at all the places where he worked. From 2004 to 2019, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the Union of Cyprus Journalists (UCJ), the last three years as General Secretary.  He has represented UCJ in international conferences, such as the Council of Europe Exchange on the Religious Dimension of Intercultural Dialogue and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) Journalism and the Challenge of Intolerance. From 2013 to 2019 he was elected as reserve member of EFJ. Since June 2019, he is a member of the Gender Council of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). Since 2007 he is a member of the Cyprus Journalism Ethics Committee, which he represented at AIPCE's conferences in 2012, 2016 and 2017.

As a peace and anti-racist activist, Christos is an active member of NGOs and citizen groups, including bi-communal ones, (such as KISA – Action for Equality, Support, AntiRacism, Bi-communal Initiative for Peace, Unite Cyprus Now, etc). He is also one of four authors of the booklet “Words that matter”, a glossary for journalism in Cyprus, 2018, sponsored by OSCE, which created a political  uproar as a result of the reaction of nationalist and extreme right circles mainly in the southern part of Cyprus, in view of the pro-solutionist position of its authors.