CFOM publishes commentary pieces focused on media freedom, journalism safety and the issue of impunity from researchers across the globe on areas that they study. If you are interested in writing a commentary for us please email cfom@sheffield.ac.uk.
‘The Librarians’: Book bans and the illiberal turn
‘The Bible is kept locked up, the way people once kept tea locked up, so the servants wouldn’t steal it. It is an incendiary device: who knows what we’d made of it if we ever got our hands on it?’ (Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale)Kim A. Snyder’s absorbing new...
Seeing is Believing? Journalism at a Crossroads in the Age of Synthetic Imagery
Astrid Vandendaele, Assistant Professor of Journalism and New Media, discusses AI generated images and how journalists are adapting to using them in newsrooms When an AI-generated image of an explosion near the Pentagon circulated online in 2023, the global media...
How state agents target journalists while governments claim to protect them – stark warnings from Mexico and Honduras
Tamsin Mitchell, Researcher and Consultant, writes about the threats that journalists are facing in Mexico and Honduras from their own governments This article was commissioned and first published by The Conversation – the news, science and arts website written...
Are journalists losing the battle against secrecy?
Jingrong Tong, Senior Lecturer in Media and Information Studies at the University of Sheffield, examines how access to information has been slowly eroding in the UKJournalists in the United Kingdom find themselves coming up against a number of challenges, including...
In praise of fixers
Janet Harris, ex- BBC Freelance Documentary film maker, writes about her experience in working with fixers and why we can't overlook the role they play Many people have not come across the term ‘fixer’ before. The Cambridge Dictionary states that a fixer is ‘someone...