Centre For Freedom Of The Media

CFOM is an international research centre in the Sheffield's department of Journalism. We believe journalists should work free from attack or censorship.

The Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM) is an interdisciplinary research centre based at the Department of Journalism Studies at the University of Sheffield that studies issues of media freedom and standards.

The founding principle of CFOM is to illuminate where news media freedom is undermined or abused and to examine news media standards of independence and truthfulness.

CFOM works with a range of external stakeholders to evaluate the role of free and independent news media in building and maintaining political and civil freedoms worldwide. Current research aims to provide an independent platform to assess the effectiveness of existing legal, political and institutional safeguards against violence directed at journalists, to present the case for more effective international mechanisms to counter such crimes of violence and to end impunity; to evaluate the state of media freedom in Europe, to analyse news media freedom, regulation and civil power and to assess news media standards and self-censorship.