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.
Monitoring of media freedom violations is a ‘blind spot’ for the Council of Europe
Council of Europe needs encouragement from NGOs to launch online database on serious violations of media freedom For many years the 47 member governments of the Council of Europe have had a blind spot about media freedom. They have been unwilling to give the go-ahead...
An unholy mixture: surveillance, the law and a setback for journalism
We should not underestate the seriousness of the government's attacks on those seeking to expose its surveillance secrets. At stake is not only what the state is entitled to do to the public, but what journalists are entitled to do to expose it and perform the vital...
The state of media freedom in Europe – September 2011
Speech by William Horsley' delivered during the special Hearing of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Media Freedom in the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm. Read more: The state of media freedom in Europe
Turkey protests are also a showdown for the media
June 2013 may go down as the month when Turkey’s prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan lost the image of political invincibility that helped him to win three landslide elections and mould the country in his image. If so, he may well blame social media, which has carried...
A human rights warning on Leveson’s blueprint
A cold shower on Brian Leveson’s blueprint for restraining the British press has come from the secretary-general of the Council of Europe. Thorbjorn Jagland has told the FT “You do not need a new law to say that phone hacking is illegal. It’s already a crime… and you...