Dr Sara Torsner
Research Fellow
Dr Sara Torsner is lead for the ESRC-funded research project Profiling impunity for human rights violations against journalists: A systematic account of state-based harm and practices of resistance. The project is hosted by the School of Journalism, Media and Communication and the Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM), University of Sheffield. It seeks to develop a comparative framework to understand the political conditions of impunity in different socio-political settings. Combining qualitative, quantitative and computational methods, as well as Participatory Action Research, the project brings together a global stakeholder community to inform interventions to more effectively redress impunity and safeguard journalists and their work.
Sara is co-founder of the Journalism Safety Research Network hosted by CFOM and has previously worked as coordinator of the UNESCO Chair on Media Freedom, Journalism Safety and the Issue of Impunity, held by Professor Jackie Harrison.
Since 2017 Sara has been leading research focused on strengthening monitoring of human rights violations against journalists. This has included collaborative work with Free Press Unlimited and UNESCO, to develop methods and tools to support monitoring in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Agenda and Indicator 16.10.1. Sara has also worked with civil society organisations globally to implement a human-rights based approach to document threats and attacks targeting journalists and media organisations.
Sara has provided consultancy services to institutions such as the OSCE, the European Parliament, and the European Commission. She is also a co-investigator for the UNESCO-funded global study on the Online Harassment of Female Journalists, led by International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), where she served as lead researcher for the Swedish case study.
- Torsner, S. (2022) Understanding journalistic institutional precarity: A macro approach to risk and the civil diminishment of journalism. International Journal of Communication.
- Harrison J, Maynard D & Torsner S (2020) Strengthening the monitoring of violations against journalists through an events-based methodology. Media and Communication, 8(1), 89-100.
- Torsner, S. (2022). Opportunities and challenges for academic engagement in the multi-stakeholder agenda to safeguard journalists. In Iordanidou, S. and Dagoula, C. (Eds.), 6+1 Proposals for Journalism: Safeguarding the Field in the Digital Era (pp. 160-172), London: Intellect Books
- Torsner, S., (2017). Measuring Journalism Safety: Methodological Challenges. In U. Carlsson & R. Pöyhtäri (Eds.), The Assault on Journalism (pp. 129-138). Gothenburg: NORDICOM.
- Harrison, J. and Torsner, S. (2022). Safety of journalists and media freedom: trends in non-EU countries from a human rights perspective. European Parliament, Directorate-General for External Policies, Policy Department (Report: June 2022 -PE 702.562).
- Posetti et. al (2021). The Chilling: global trends in online violence against women journalists. UNESCO discussion paper.
- Torsner, S. (2022, January 5). Increasing numbers of physical attacks on European journalists as they report on COVID and other stories. The Conversation.
- Torsner, S. and Harrison, J. (2021, April 20). Press freedom: how governments are using COVID as an excuse to crack down on the public’s right to know. The Conversation.