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.
Think pieces by leading commentators
A selection of think-pieces by William Horsley, Nicholas Jones, and Masha Lipman "Euro elections: newspaper websites break new ground in challenging radio and television" (PDF ) By Nicholas Jones 15.6.2009 Political journalism: the perils of writing to a...
Keynote speech by Judge Sanjo Mmasenono Monageng, First Vice-President of the International Criminal Court
Can the ICC offer legal protection to targeted journalists? On April 7 2014, Judge Sanji Mmasenono Monageng spoke at the BBC-CFOM Symposium on the protection of journalists and the issue of impunity held at BBC Broadcasting House in London. She delivered the most...
In Defence of Tabloids
By Sara McConnell “And to you, the press, I say, shame, shame on all of you”. The words of the coroner at the recent inquest into the suicide of transsexual primary school teacher Lucy Meadows sum up what many people clearly feel about this country’s press. They...
Tim Luckhurst writes that Self-regulation without statutory underpinning is possible and desirable
By Tim Luckhurst Britain’s newspaper industry has responded to the Leveson Report with commendable speed and intelligence. Brian Leveson took hearings for eight months before he started to write. But journalists understand that a job worth doing well must be done...
A Lawyer’s Comment on the Leveson Report
By Eric Barendt The Leveson Report provides a compelling case for radical reform of press law and regulation. Only the most hard-hearted of journalists, for whom in Paul McMullan’s words ‘[p]rivacy is for paedos…privacy is evil’ could fail to be shocked by the...