The Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM) at the University of Sheffield (UK) is an interdisciplinary research centre with global outreach on issues of media freedom, journalism safety, editorial standards and impunity. During the 2022 Academic Consultation on the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, CFOM conducted a literature stocktake to scope out academic literature published in the area of media freedom, journalism safety and impunity. CFOM collated this information and produced a literature database organised by themes or countries for accessibility.  The collection is especially strong on country- and region-specific safety issues and on surveys of emotional wellbeing of journalists. This special collection is curated by gemma.horton@sheffield.ac.uk.

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"The Boko Haram terrorism and violent extremism that ravaged North East Nigeria and Republics of Chad, Niger and Cameroons from 2009-2015 exposed weaknesses in the safety policy and protocols for local journalists in times and zones of tension in Nigeria. Boko Haram terrorists killed 30,000 people a ... more
"This research examines the everyday sexism and workplace sex discrimination experienced by women journalists in India. Nearly all of the popular and scholarly attention to the experiences of Indian women journalists has focused on high profile instances of rape and sexual assault. But this focus on ... more
"Democracies with sharp violence and public insecurity have proliferated in recent decades, with many also featuring extreme economic inequality. These conditions have not been explicitly considered in comparative research on journalists' work environments, an omission that may obscure important rea ... more
"Both long-standing and innovative partnership models suggest that collaborative newsgathering by international and local journalists has been an invaluable practice to get the news in unsafe environments and out to global audiences. As violence, often deadly and nearly always unpunished, multiplies ... more

Journalists as Victims and Perpetrators of Violence

In: News of Baltimore: Race, Rage and the City
London; New York: Routledge (2017), 17 pp.
"This chapter explores the complicated ways in which journalists became subjects within the stories of Ferguson and Baltimore through a particular focus on the discursive identification of journalists as either victims or perpetrators of violence. It focuses on two evaluative frameworks: journalists ... more
"Freedom of expression is a cornerstone of democratic society and essential for the formation of an informed public opinion. A society that is not well informed is never totally free. This chapter examines the interplay of external and internal risks on press freedom in five Mexican states. The conc ... more
"Civic organizations, groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, play a key role in the production and circulation of human rights discourses. Scholars have examined the strategies civic organizations use to attract media coverage, the permeability of the news media to human rights me ... more

The United Nations’ Role in Promoting the Safety of Journalists from 1945 to 2016

In: The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression
Göteborg: Nordicom (2017), pp. 45-60
"The United Nations (UN) has played an increasing role in promoting the safety of journalists. Yet little has been done to study its work from a historical perspective. This paper explores global attempts to promote journalist safety carried out by the UN system, from its inception in 1945 until 201 ... more
"International Humanitarian Law (IHL) has long-claimed that recognition as a civilian is critical to a journalist's safety during war, but the new US Manual blurs that line and says journalists must better understand the distinction between civilians and combatants. Given the fact that journalists m ... more
"Journalism is a dangerous business when one’s "beat" is a war zone. Armoudian reveals the complications facing frontline journalists who cover warzones, hot spots and other hazardous situations. It compares yesterday’s conflict journalism, which was fraught with its own dangers, with today’s ... more
"The report, based on answers from 247 respondents, summarises the ‘good news’, that journalists do implement changes in their behaviour when they have attended safety trainings, and the gaps and challenges, including the fact that few journalists keep their training up to date in spite of indus ... more

Australian News Photographers, Safety and Trauma

In: The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression
Göteborg: Nordicom (2017), pp. 231-234
"This chapter illuminates new understanding about the dangers experienced by Australian news photographers on international and domestic assignments. Using oral history methodology, the interviews with 60 present and former Australian newspaper photographers revealed a litany of psychologically and ... more

Risk and Resilience among Journalists Covering Potentially Traumatic Events

In: The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression
Göteborg: Nordicom (2017), pp. 235-240
"Journalists covering crises are at high risk of experiencing potentially traumatic events. This chapter presents a study with 375 journalists who covered the 2011 terror attack in Norway. The purpose was to investigate whether social support (SS) was related to psychological distress (posttraumatic ... more
"Journalism is considered as fourth pillar of any democratic society and it is only a Journalist who can take many challenges to bring truth in front of society. But sometimes journalist has to face difficult and stressful conditions while working in field where they have serious threat for their li ... more
"Press freedom is facing new threats in major democracies as well as in repressive states, where authorities are focusing their efforts on social media and other online platforms after subduing the independence of major print and broadcast outlets. The analysis below—drawn from the findings of Fre ... more

Tribal Journalists under Fire: Threats, impunity and decision making in reporting on conflict in Pakistan

In: The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression
Göteborg: Nordicom (2017), pp. 147-158
"This study investigates the challenges faced by local journalists caught between the global “war on terror” and its local consequences in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Threats and impunity are commonplace in this buffer zone bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, compell ... more
"Journalists in many countries work in contexts of continuous risk, but few empirical studies identify how these conditions influence practice or measure the relative influence of different kinds of risk. This study asks a national sample of Mexican journalists to report use of several measures to a ... more

A Story Bigger than Your Life? The safety challenges of journalists reporting on democratization conflicts

In: The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression
Göteborg: Nordicom (2017), pp. 289-302
"This chapter investigates safety challenges journalists face when reporting on democratization conflicts and their impact on journalistic work. It builds on a comparative case study within the EU-funded project “Media, Conflict and Democratisation” (MeCoDEM), which explores journalistic work pr ... more
"To support joint efforts to protect journalism, there is a growing need for research-based knowledge. Acknowledging this need, the aim of this publication is to highlight and fuel journalist safety as a field of research, to encourage worldwide participation, as well as to inspire further dialogues ... more
"This Handbook is primarily for use by media professionals who report from conflict zones. It is a practical and accessible guide to the rules of international humanitarian law (IHL) that protect media professionals and their work in armed conflict. It also considers the IHL responsibilities that me ... more