Laurens joined the ECPMF in September 2020 and leads the organisation’s advocacy activities, to raise awareness and provide direct responses to threats to media freedom that build on monitoring and analysis. Previously, Laurens worked in legal and programme coordination roles for civil society organisations in the United Kingdom and Switzerland on freedom of expression, counterterrorism, sexual orientation and gender identity, and judicial independence. He also interned in the European Parliament’s Human Rights Unit. Laurens holds degrees in history and in law from the Ghent University in Belgium and a postgraduate degree in EU law from Maastricht University in the Netherlands.