The Price Media Law Moot Court Programme established by the Programme in Comparative Media Law & Policy at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, is the largest mooting competition in the field of international media law. Inaugurated in 2008, it was named after the founding director of the programme, Monroe E. Price.

39 out of 96 teams representing many countries around the world, including Bangladesh, Belarus, China, Egypt, Hungary, India, Iran, Latvia, Lebanon, Palestine, Philippines, South Africa, Ukraine, USA, Zimbabwe etc. qualified for the global rounds at Oxford.

A team from University of Dhaka qualified for the global final rounds based on the assessment of its memorials i.e. the written submission. The team consisted of Riasat Azmi, Md Jahid-Al-Mamun, Md Azhar Uddin Bhuiyanand Ali Mashraf. Ms. Arpeeta Shams Mizan, lecturer of law, DU, was the team’s coach. The team was generously funded by IFIC Bank Limited, Confidence Group and Bangla Trac Ltd. (BanglaCAT) for this competition.

The competition case for this year’s moot was based on contemporary socio-legal issues, such as freedom of speech and expression, privacy rights of public figures, regulation of social media prior to elections, extent and reach of political propaganda and hate speech in interfering with elections in democratic countries etc. The competition also featured a Mooting Master Class by Ms. Sarah Phillimore on advanced tips and techniques of mooting and an open discussion session with the author of the competition case, Mr. Gehan Gunatilleke.

The writer is a student of law, University of Dhaka and a participant of this competition.