William Horsley
International Director and Co-Founder
Email: w.f.horsley@sheffield.ac.uk
William Horsley is co-founder and international director of CFOM. He promotes the Centre’s mission to strengthen international protections for free and independent media and freedom of expression, through advocacy and significant policy innovations with governments, stakeholders, and inter-governmental organisations.
William received a BA and MA in Oriental Studies from Oxford University in 1971. He had a distinguished 35-year career as a BBC radio and TV reporter, foreign correspondent in Asia and Europe, and programme maker and presenter including on Newsnight (BBC 2), and Europe Direct (World TV/News24). He writes the CFOM International Director’s Column and contributes to media outlets including the BBC, Al Jazeera, Open Democracy, Dawn, Mainichi Shimbun and The Round Table (Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs).
William wrote several special Reports on the State of Media Freedom in Europe for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. He was active as an independent member of the Council of Europe’s expert committee, which drafted the 2016 Committee of Ministers’ Recommendation on the protection of journalism and the safety of journalists and other media actors That landmark soft law instrument laid the foundations for the European Union’s Recommendation on the Protection, Safety and Empowerment of Journalists (2021). His other publications include the 3rd OSCE Safety of Journalists Guidebook (2020). He is co-author with Professor Marilyn Clark of A Mission to Inform: Journalists at risk speak out (Council of Europe, 2020); and with Meera Selva of the UNESCO Issue Brief on Freedom of Expression and the Safety of Foreign Correspondents (2021).
- Horsley, W. (2019) ‘Will the Commonwealth be Just a Leaders’ Club or Will it Stand up for Press Freedom?’, The Round Table, 108(2), pp. 203-204
- Page, D. & Horsley, W. (2018) ‘Media Freedom in the Commonwealth: Making the Commitments Real’, The Round Table, 107(2) pp. 137-149
- Horsley, W. (2018) ‘Public Trust, ‘Alt’ Facts and the Commonwealth’, The Round Table, 107(2), pp. 255-256
- Horsley, W. & Page, D. (2016) ‘Time for a New Commonwealth Initiative on Media Freedom’, The Round Table, 105(6), pp. 741-742
- Horsley, W. & Selva, M. (2021) Freedom of expression and the safety of foreign correspondents: trends, challenges and responses. UNESCO’s World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development, CI-2021/WTR/2.
- Horsley, W. (2009) Respect for Media Freedom. Background Report prepared for Parliamentary Asembly Committee on Culture, Science and Education Sub-Committee on the Media.
- Horsley, W. (2013) The Activities of Organisations in Europe working for the Protection and Safety of Journalists and to Combat Impunity. Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for Media and Information Society. Report MCM(2013)011.
- Horsley, W. (2021) Media capture in Central and Eastern Europe: the corrosive impact on democracy and desecration of journalistic ethics. In L. Price, K. Sanders, &; W. N. Wyatt (Eds.) The Routledge Companion to Journalism Ethics. Routledge.
- Clark, M. & Horsley, W. (2020) A mission to inform – Journalists at risk speak out, Council of Europe
- Horsley, W. (Ed) (2020) Pressing for freedom: 20 years of World Press Freedom Day, UNESCO
- Horsley, W. & Buckley, R. Nippon: New Superpower: Japan Since 1945. BBC.
- Horsley, W. (2012) OSCE Safety of Journalists Guidebook, Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media
- Horsley, W. (2020) OSCE Safety of Journalists Guidebook, 3rd edition, Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media