William Horsley is CFOM’s International Director. He has a leading role to promote CFOM’s global mission to strengthen international protections for free and independent media and freedom of expression through research and analysis, advocacy, topical public events and seminars and policy advice to governments and media. He also engages with inter-governmental organisations, such as UNESCO and the Council of Europe.
His International Director’s Column focuses on issues of media freedom across the world alongside providing a snapshot of the advocacy work that William does. You can find his pieces below.
Big Media ‘must do more’ to protect journalists
The big guns of the world’s media have found themselves at fault. At UNESCO’s Paris headquarters on 5 February, 200 senior media managers, editors and journalists from around the world, whose everyday job is to hold others to account, publicly examined their own...
Our International Director’s Report on the 2nd November London event “Stop the Killing of Journalists! Prevention and Justice to end Impunity”
End Impunity Day London Event 2 November 2015 – Report: Stop the Killing of Journalists! Prevention and Justice to end Impunity. Public debate in the UK Parliament on 2 November 2015, organised by the Centre for Freedom of the Media, University of Sheffield; PEN...
EU leaders must act to protect journalists threatened with violence
This year’s International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists highlights why the safety of journalists is vital to all our freedom, writes William Horsley. 700 journalists killed for their work in 10 years, and a total failure of states to convict any...
Al-Jazeera jail sentences crush hopes for media freedom in Egypt
Journalists in Egypt suffer from some of the world’s most oppressive laws and restrictions on truthful and independent reporting. And the weekend’s court verdict and jail sentences in the much-publicised re-trial of Baher Mohamed, Mohamed Fahmy and (in absentia) Peter...
The new normal of journalism: Assume you’re being watched
It’s a happy week for the people of Latvia. They are celebrating the 25th anniversary of their independence from the Soviet Union, which was declared on 4 May 1990. That date signalled the lifting of decades of Soviet-style censorship and totalitarianism. So it is...