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.
Dear foreign secretary, here’s how to protect journalists and press freedom
William Horsley, the International Director and Co-Founder of CFOM, writes about the Foreign Secretary's decision to make the safety of journalists a flagship policy. Clear that this is an important step from Jeremy Hunt, William lays out, in a piece originally...
CFOM panel examines the causes of Impunity: Why do the killers of journalists so often walk free?
By William Horsley, CFOM International Director On Thursday November 7, 2018, a topical CFOM Panel debate was held on ‘The Assault on Press Freedom: Why attacks on journalists spell danger for the Rule of Law and Democracy’. It took place during the University of...
Two journalists’ deaths in Europe are a symptom that the rule of law is failing
Two journalists’ murders have shaken the EU’s claim to be a champion of democracy and the rule of law. The killing of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in a remote-controlled car bomb explosion near her home in Malta last October and the mafia...
Out of Africa: The winning ways of the enemies of press freedom
World Press Freedom Day in Africa meant loud drums and a gathering of almost a thousand people - including Ghana’s president, senior African judges, hundreds of West African journalists and a keen circus of press freedom advocates from all corners of the world. The...
A media view of the Commonwealth summit: too much self-praise and not enough open democracy
Proposals which were described as 'important and timely' were submitted for the attention of Commonwealth leaders by an expert Working Group for a new 'code' on media-government relations, but they were ignored in the final Communique. Even so, foreign ministers from...