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.
The crisis for free expression calls for radical responses, so here are four of them
CFOM International Director William Horsley reports on a meeting to imagine routes to a safe environment for journalists.The 2023 RSF Press Freedom Index highlights aggressive behaviour by governments towards journalists and the rapid growth of the “disinformation...
Can the Commonwealth survive without free speech?
William Horsley, CFOM International Director, 26 April 2023“Is it time to scrap the Commonwealth?” The question was met with laughter when asked at a gathering of Commonwealth insiders last January in Windsor Great Park, but it was meant seriously. Joel Kibazo, a...
A landmark decision for press freedom across the Commonwealth
By William Horsley, CFOM International Director and Executive Committee member of the Commonwealth Journalists Association 12 December 2022 A meeting of Commonwealth Law Ministers in Mauritius ended on November 25 with agreement (see para. 24) to adopt a set of...
UN conference hears lawyer’s call for the Commonwealth to “give teeth” to protections for journalists at risk
By William Horsley, International Director of CFOM, University of Sheffield The Role of Commonwealth Governments in Journalism Safety Years of inaction by Commonwealth governments in response to violent assaults and excessive restraints on the work of independent...
Hungary’s “Catch 22” media dilemma
By William Horsley, CFOM International Director Zsombor György has a Catch 22 problem. The editor in chief of Magyar Hang, Hungarian Voice, has declared that the newspaper will go out of business this summer unless it finds a fresh injection of income. In Hungary’s...