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.
Points of view on media freedom in the Balkans: the cases of Macedonia and Serbia
By Petar Milin and Xhevahire Pruthi Zajazi Media is in the grip of ‘soft-censorship’ and must break free for a democratic future After Macedonia was thrown into political turmoil in 2015, journalism there suffered an unprecedented crisis of integrity. Citizens no...
Journalists’ Safety Research Network will increase research capacity and knowledge exchange among the community of journalism safety experts
By Sara Torsner Journalistic safety has long been a relatively unexplored topic by academia, but as NORDICOM Professor Ulla Carlsson said at the book launch of The Assault on Journalism, we can now begin to see the emergence of a new academic research field where...
Terrorism and authoritarianism: lessons from the Middle East region
By Dr. Omar Al-Ghazzi With recurrent terrorist attacks in Europe, it has sadly become commonplace for political figures to repeat the defiant statement “we won’t let terrorists change our way of life”. In addition to the violence and suffering these attacks inflict on...
How to build a methodology to measure the risk to journalists’ safety in the round?
By Sara Torsner It is increasingly understood that journalism safety is a multi-layered problem that must be addressed with reference to a wide range of threats and hostile environments facing a very diverse community of journalists. Yet current methods of...
The dynamic tension between the press and authority in the UK
By Jonathan Grun Guy Black – Lord Black of Brentwood – was addressing last week’s Institute of Commonwealth Studies conference on threats to press freedom in the Commonwealth when he felt compelled to mention the “elephant in the room” of British press freedom:...