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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"Work done internationally to address impunity concentrates on removing blanket amnesties and establishing commissions of inquiry into past atrocities. Everyday impunity—the impossibility of bringing state officers to account for routinized violent crimes against other individuals—gets less atte ... more
"Mexico is one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists, as more than 100 journalists have been murdered between 2000 and 2014, with almost half of those killed in the country's northern states. Through an analysis of in-depth interviews with journalists in northern Mexico, this qua ... more
"The war journalist is often portrayed as a ruggedly masculine individual who survives on hard work, self-sufficiency, and heroic dedication to the truth in a stoic culture and dangerous environment. Yet, the growing number of female war journalists subtly complicates this traditional narrative. Fem ... more
"On 13 April 2016, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers adopted its Recommendation CM/Rec(2016)4 on the protection of journalism and safety of journalists and other media actors. This is a continuation of the Committee of Ministers’ engagement with the topic, following its adoption of ... more

Mexico: Structural Challenges for Women in News Media

In: The Palgrave International Handbook of Women and Journalism
Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York: Palgrave Macmillan (2016), pp. 284-300
"This chapter will analyze women’s access to and participation in Mexico’s news media. At the intersections of feminism and the political economy of communication, we will put into context the findings for Mexico in the Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media (Global Report) (Byer ... more
"Female journalists’ experiences of sexual harassment are barely documented in the literature about Australian news journalism despite evidence of its ongoing prevalence. There have been some stories of harassment detailed in autobiographies by female journalists and the occasional article in the ... more
"Are female journalists more at risk in covering conflict than their male colleagues? Beck states ‘risk is the anticipation of the catastrophe – so it is existent and non-existent’. Is the contention that female journalists are more at risk, knowledge, or a construction of knowledge? Are Edito ... more
"Media development organisations regard polarisation and a lack of ethical standards as the main problems in conflict societies. Our interviews with both Europe-based and local media development actors show that their support programmes address journalists as enablers of an inclusive public discours ... more
"This paper argues that the safety of journalists in Ghana can no longer be taken for granted given the available evidence of physical attacks on journalists (Joint Statement NMC et al., 2016 and MFWA, 2016). The overarching objective of the study is to portray Donkor’s case as typical of similar ... more
"This report provides an overview of a decade of killings of journalists, media workers and social media producers, between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2015. The extent of the risks faced by those exercising their right to express opinions and disseminate information is demonstrated by the figure ... more
"Global press freedom declined to its lowest point in 12 years in 2015, mainly due to political, criminal, and terrorist forces that sought to co-opt or silence the media in their struggle for power (Freedom House, 2016). As of 2015, only one in seven people around the world lived in a country that ... more
"In Latin America in the twenty-first century, journalists face daily professional and societal constraints and pressures when attempting to fulfill their role to inform the public. Concerns include a lack of press freedom, robust and growing social movements critical of the news media, and personal ... more

Factors Affecting the Status of Women Journalists: A Structural Analysis

In: The Palgrave International Handbook of Women and Journalism
Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York: Palgrave Macmillan (2016), pp. 11-23
"Any assessment of women journalists’ status in their newsrooms should begin with the big picture. Women professionals inside news and other media enterprises have been the torchbearers of change for at least three decades. Sometimes assisted by enlightened male allies, women in journalism and oth ... more
"Previous studies of intimidation and harassment of journalists have (rightly) focused on non-democratic and authoritarian nations and/or transitional/emerging democracies. In this article, we examine the situation in Sweden, a country with strong de facto and de jure safeguards of journalistic free ... more
"The vulnerability of journalists to kidnappings was starkly illustrated by the killing of James Foley and Steven Sotloff by Islamic militants in 2014. Their murder underscored the risks taken by journalists and news organisations trying to cover developments in dangerous regions of the world and ha ... more

Women in war: Challenges and possibilities for female journalists covering wars and conflicts

In: Freedom of Expression and Media in Transition: Studies and Reflections in the Digital Age
Göteborg: Nordicom (2016), pp. 165-176
"The chapter takes as its starting point the notion that journalists’ safety is a precondition for free expression and free media. Based on interviews and discussions with experienced female war and conflict journalists from seven countries worldwide, the discussion evolves around questions linked ... more
"Más de 1050 periodistas asesinados y desaparecidos (unos 22,8 casos al año) hicieron de América Latina el escenario más peligroso del mundo para el ejercicio profesional, entre 1970 y 2015, incluso en países sin guerras oficialmente aceptadas. Desde las dictaduras hasta el narcopoder, desde M ... more
"Every 3rd of May in the year, the world celebrates the freedom of the press. The celebration often serves as a reminder on the need for the protection of the Fundamental Human Rights and Freedom of Expression as embedded in the universal declaration of Human Rights as well as the constitution of co ... more
"The chapter describes how social media is utilized in an environment of heightened violence and indicates that numerous journalists from 18 cities often use social media to forge cross-border relationships with colleagues. It focuses on a study of social media use by journalists and bloggers report ... more
"The primary objective of the 2015 NIMP Mission was to provide technical inputs to activities underway under UNESCO’s Safety of Journalists project, particularly in terms of setting up an independent national mechanism on safety at the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). Another key objective ... more