Dr Rachael Craufurd Smith is a Reader at the University of Edinburgh, specialising in media law, the regulation of culture and European Union law. She is a qualified solicitor and has worked in the International and Policy and Planning Departments of the BBC, focussing on the impact of European Community Law on the public broadcasting sector. Rachael also worked as a trainee in the Internal Market DG of the European Commission and was a Fellow for a number of years at Trinity, Corpus Christi and St. John’s Colleges and a University Lecturer at the University of Oxford.
Rachael has written widely on the regulation of the cultural and creative and industries and media law, with a long-standing focus on the protection of media pluralism in the UK and Europe. She headed the University of Edinburgh team working on the EU funded Mediadem project, which studied the freedom and independence of the media in Europe, and is currently working with colleagues to prepare the UK report for the EU media pluralism monitor. Recent research also relates to fake news, Brexit and the audiovisual sector, and the protection of whistleblowers. Rachael was a co-founding editor of The Journal of Media Law, launched by Hart Publishing in 2009.