World Press Freedom Day 2017

Cilla Benkö was appointed Director-General and CEO of the Swedish Radio in 2012. Since 2009, she had held the position of Deputy Director-General. Cilla Benkö has been working for the Swedish Radio for more than 30 years and during this period she has had several management positions. She started her work at the sports department and at the news department, as a business journalist. She has also worked as a freelance in New York for the Swedish commercial television and was head of its news programme “Aktuellt”.

Since 2010, Cilla Benkö has been a member of the executive board of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Since 2014, she has been vice- president of Prix Europa.

She graduated in Journalism and Media at the Stockholm University in 1986. She also studied economy at the Stockholm School of Economics, and communication and marketing at the New York University.

Benkö was elected as the President of the Independent Jury of the 2017 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.