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.
Is The UK ‘Media Plurality Test’ Fit For Purpose?
By Rachael Craufurd Smith The extraordinary events surrounding the closure of the News of the World and the withdrawal by News Corporation of its bid to take full control of BSkyB have cast a light on how journalistic standards, if not democratic government itself,...
Donald Trelford comments on phone-hacking
Today's Parliamentary debate about Rupert Murdoch – “hanging the Great Satan out to dry” was the way one writer put it – was the day of come-uppance that MPs have been eagerly awaiting ever since the newspapers shamed them over their expenses. It was pay-back time...
The Absence of Trust
By Jackie Harrison When James Murdoch made his MacTaggart speech entitled ‘The Absence of Trust’ in August 2009 he criticized regulatory constraints in the broadcasting sector for creating unaccountable institutions such as the BBC Trust, Channel 4 and Ofcom. In his...
Should journalists ‘operate on the margins of law and morality’?
By Ralph Negrine The events surrounding the demise of the News of the World has focused our minds, once more, on what should be considered legitimate and permissible practice in journalism and, indeed, in the pursuit of ‘the story’. That the NotW may have used...
Interview with Heidi Hautala, European Parliament
Heidi Hautala is the Finnish Member of the European Parliament (Greens, European Free Alliance Group) Interview for the Political Aspects study of the initiative on impunity and the rule of law, 7/4/2011, (Highlighted in bold are passages cited in the Political...