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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Embedded Journalism and Its Implications in the Field

In: The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression
Göteborg: Nordicom (2017), pp. 255-266
"The Iraq War was a landmark in war reporting. The design and implementation of the embedded system enabled nearly 700 journalists to live and work alongside soldiers of the United States and British armies. Nearly 30 countries took part in the system, including Spain, one of the main supporters of ... more

The Dangers of Sports Journalism

In: The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression
Göteborg: Nordicom (2017), pp. 205-220
"According to The Committee to Protect Journalists, 2 per cent of all journalists killed since 1992 worked on the sports beat. At present, however, we have limited knowledge of the specific dangers faced by sports journalists. This chapter presents findings from exploratory research on 78 reports of ... more

Why the World Became Concerned with Journalistic Safety, and Why the Issue Will Continue to Attract Attention

In: The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression
Göteborg: Nordicom (2017), pp. 33-44
"There is a history to why the challenge of securing safety for journalism has become a prominent issue in many parts of the world. This is partly because of increased attacks on journalists, but it is also a function of global developments that have afforded space for the issue to come to fore as a ... more
"This paper studies how the training of journalists has been approached in Spain. Since 2003, the Army War College has held annual Training Courses for War Correspondents. Over three hundred journalists have been trained on these courses. This study analyses and reflects on how the Spanish Army carr ... more

Journalist Killings and the Responsibility to Report

In: The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression
Göteborg: Nordicom (2017), pp. 21-32
"More journalists are being killed and threatened around the world than at any time before. How do we account for these disturbing trends and why do journalists increasingly put themselves in harm’s way? This chapter argues that if we are to better understand the motivations of journalists and the ... 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
"Agnes Callamard argues that academics have unique responsibilities in a dark era of violence." (Abstract)
"In September 2016, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) broke new ground with the unanimous adoption of HRC Resolution 33/2 on the safety of journalists. The HRC is the world’s highest human rights body and its resolutions are a strong collective commitment from States to act on priority human right ... more
"The article recaps the main findings of the investigations presented in this special issue and seeks to answer the question “What can Northern journalism educators do to improve safety during fieldwork in the Global South?” The article builds mainly on qualitative interviews with former journal ... 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

The Cost of Truth Telling in India: Reporting in the Context of Intolerance

In: The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression
Göteborg: Nordicom (2017), pp. 87-92
"I would like to begin by stating the obvious. Any way forward has to be based on a clear understanding of the possibilities for change in the environment and context of the press in India. While there is a lot to celebrate about the press in India, its institutional location within the market, its ... more
"This report takes a look at a selection of the innovative, successful ways media companies, individual journalists and civil society organizations are coming together to improve journalist safety. These are cases of people taking the initiative, of acting on behalf of the profession, of not sitting ... more

Safe+Secure Handbook

DOC Funders Network (2017), 59 pp.
"Getting to the heart of stories by asking the really tough questions and going places where no one wants to go. That’s documentary at its best. This Safe+Secure Handbook has been designed to help filmmakers get there—and back—and get their stories into the public domain as safely as possible. ... more

Measuring journalism safety. Methodological challenges

In: The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression
Göteborg: Nordicom (2017), pp. 129-140
"The effectiveness of any measures taken to address the problems of journalism safety ultimately depends on our ability to understand the complex nature and dynamics of risk to journalists. Mapping the scale of the problem through the systematic collection of data on threats over time is therefore a ... more
"Domestic journalists covering Kenya’s 2013 General Election worked in an exceptionally challenging media environment; one which was significantly shaped by the 2007 election and post-election violence (PEV). Rooted in literature on peace journalism (PJ), we examine how the PEV of Kenya’s 2007 p ... more

A Country without Mercy: Afghan Journalists Caught in Crossfires

In: The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression
Göteborg: Nordicom (2017), pp. 81-86
"In the last Afghan solar year (22 March 2015 – 21 March 2016), twelve journalists and media workers were killed, exceeding any previous year in recent history. In June 2016, the US photographer David Gilkey and his interpreter, journalist Zabihullah Tamanna, were killed in a Taliban attack in Maj ... 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
"[...] To test the argument whether the killing of journalists is a precursor to increasing repression, we introduce a new global dataset on killings of journalists between 2002 and 2013 that uses three different sources that track such events across the world. The new data show that mostly local jo ... 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
"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