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.
When media and politics merge, journalists become “the enemy”
By William Horsley, CFOM International Director The European Union claims it has understood that the demise of free and independent media spells the death of democracy. Europe, it’s said, has “learned the lessons” from being duped for years by Putin’s victim-blaming...
Message from Mariupol: “Russian journalists, the blood of the dead is on your hands”
By William Horsley, CFOM’s International Director What responsibility should be borne by journalists who knowingly propagate lies which promote and enable the mass killing of civilians in war? That question came into stark relief when Anna Murlykina,...
Political leadership is the only way to reverse the assault on press freedom in Commonwealth countries
By William Horsley, International Director of the Centre for Freedom of the Media, University of Sheffield. The decisive moment for the countries concerned to grasp this nettle was to be a virtual meeting of Commonwealth Law Ministers in March. Prominent on the draft...
Media freedom battles reach high pitch on Human Rights Day
By William Horsley, CFOM International Director Every year on December 10 Human Rights Day is celebrated as the anniversary of the adoption in 1948 by the United Nations General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This year more than ever, fierce...
Will giving the Nobel Peace Prize to two journalists make a difference? Yes it can.
By, William Horsley, CFOM International Director The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the Peace Prize to Dmitry Muratov, the editor of Novaya Gazeta in Russia, and Maria Ressa, the co-founder and editor of the investigative media outlet Rappler in the...