Presenters

Prof Briony Birdi

Head of School, Journalism, Media and Communication

IJW2025 Opening Remarks

Briony Birdi is a Professor of Library and Information Science and Head of the School of Information, Journalism, and Communication at the University of Sheffield. Her research and teaching explore the social, political and educational roles of public and youth libraries, with a particular focus on social justice and diversity. Until 2023 she was Director of Equality, Diversity & Inclusion for the faculty of Social Sciences, a senior leadership role in the areas of race equality, gender equality, disability equality and wellbeing. Briony has also served on national and international committees in relation to reading, literacy and social justice, and continues to be consulted on public library policy and practice, reading and diversity for regional, national and international academic and professional organisations.  

Anne Koch

For the Record: the EBU's Ukraine Archive

Anne Koch is the Ukraine Archive Project Lead at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and based in London. Previously she was the Program Director for the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN); before that, she had an award-winning career in broadcast journalism at the BBC, including Deputy Director of the English World Service, Executive Editor of the BBC’s flagship radio news and current affairs programs, Editor of the World Tonight and producer of more than a hundred radio documentaries. She has also worked as Director for Europe and Central Asia at Transparency International (TI). 

Panel discussion

Journalists at risk: keeping reporters safe at home and abroad

Moderators:

Tim Hopkinson

Tim Hopkinson has worked for over 25 years in the local, regional and national press. He joined the University of Sheffield as a teaching associate in September 2022 following his role as deputy editor on The Star in Sheffield. Before that he had been print editor for the daily title along with other publications across the region. Tim started his career as a reporter on the Matlock Mercury, soon moving to the Derbyshire Times where he worked as a senior reporter and sub editor before returning to the Mercury as its deputy editor. He worked for many years as an editorial manager in the Johnston Press design hub, on local, regional and national titles across the UK and Ireland. This included taking a leading role in the award-winning JPIMedia investigations unit which uncovered exclusive stories on topics such as NHS funding and knife crime and working alongside the team from the i. 

Mark Bradley

Before joining the University of Sheffield in September 2014, Mark was the Group Editor of 12 weekly newspapers and websites across West Yorkshire, including the Wakefield Express, Dewsbury Reporter and Halifax Courier. His journalistic background includes being a reporter for the Uxbridge Gazette in west London, a sub-editor for the Harrogate Advertiser and the Yorkshire Evening Post, and also Editor of the Halifax Courier while it was a daily title. During his decade in the hotseat in West Yorkshire, Mark was instrumental in converting newsrooms into multimedia operations, as well as the strategic development of editorial policy across print, online and social media channels. He has also overseen the development of a significant number of trainee reporters into senior journalists now based across the UK and Europe.

Panellists:

Dr Rebecca Whittington

Dr Rebecca Whittington is the Online Safety Editor for Reach Plc, the UK’s largest commercial news publisher. She was appointed into the role, which was the first of its kind established in the UK, to protect journalists from online harassment and harm. Rebecca also writes about media freedom, online threats, campaigns for the online safety of women in journalism and sits on the advisory committee for Women in Journalism and the employers sub-committee of the National Committee for the Safety of Journalists.  Rebecca's podcast, Go Doxx Yourself, investigates the human stories behind cyber nightmares and helps listeners navigate their digital lives.

Ross Higgins

BBC High Risk and News Safety team (HRNS)

Journalism in the age of drone wars: A BBC Approach (Talk, Workshop & Exhibition)

Members of the BBC High Risk and News Safety team (HRNS). The BBC High Risk team provides specialist safety and security advice and support to all areas of the BBC work globally. 

Panel Discussion

Covering Asia in times of war and democratic decline

Moderator:

Dr Dani Madrid-Morales

Dani is a Lecturer in Journalism & Global Communication at the University of Sheffield’s department of Journalism, Media and Communication. Prior to joining The University of Sheffield, he was an Assistant Professor in Journalism at the Valenti School of Communication, University of Houston (2018-2022), and a Hong Kong PhD Fellow in the Department of Media and Communication at City University of Hong Kong (2013-2018). Before starting his academic career, Dani worked as a journalist for 15 years in his hometown, Barcelona. Dani is an active member of the International Communication Association’s Global Communication and Social Change Division, where he served as Secretary from 2020 to 2022. He is also a member of the editorial board of the academic journal, African Journalism Studies and the Annals of the International Communication Association. At the School of Information, Journalism and Communication, Dani also serves as course leader, MA Global Journalism, and is the Co-Lead of the Disinformation Research Cluster.

Panellist - Subtopic: Fact-checking in Southeast Asia’s age of crises and democratic decline

Yvonne T. Chua

Yvonne T. Chua is professorial lecturer of journalism at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City where she teaches journalism ethics, fact-checking and data journalism, among others. She has done research on information disorder, media and democracy.

Panellist - Subtopic: Credibility at siege in the age of drone warfare and democratic decline

Edson C. Tandoc Jr.

Edson C. Tandoc Jr. (Ph.D., University of Missouri) is President's Chair Professor of Communication Studies at Nanyang Technological University Singapore. He is the Associate Chair for Research and Strategy at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information (WKWSCI) and the Director of the Centre for Information Integrity and the Internet (IN-cube). He is also the Chair of the Journalism Studies Division of the International Communication Association (ICA). His research focuses on the sociology of message construction in the context of digital journalism. He has conducted studies on the construction of news and social media messages. His studies about influences on journalists have focused on the impact of journalistic roles, audience feedback, and emerging technologies on the various stages of the news gatekeeping process. He earned his BA in Journalism degree from the University of the Philippines (Summa cum Laude) and his Master of Mass Communication degree from the Nanyang Technological University, where he was awarded the Media Development Authority Award (top MMC graduate). He also worked as a newspaper journalist for six years before pursuing his doctoral studies at the Missouri School of Journalism as a Fulbright Scholar.

Panel Discussion

Covering Africa in times of war and democratic decline

Moderator:

Jingrong Tong

Jingrong Tong has been working in the area of journalism and news media for 20 years first as a journalist then as an academic. She joined the School of Information, Journalism and Communication at the University of Sheffield in September 2019 as Senior Lecturer in Digital News Cultures. Previously, she was Senior Lecturer in Digital Media and Culture at Brunel University (2016-19) and Lecturer in Media and Communication at the University of Leicester (2009-16).

Panellist – Subtopic: Repression reaches across borders: Trends in transnational attacks on journalists in Africa

Muthoki Mumo

Muthoki Mumo is the Africa Program Coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an international organisation that champions press freedom worldwide. She has worked with CPJ since 2017, previously serving as the East Africa Correspondent and the sub-Saharan Africa Representative. She previously worked as a reporter with the Nation Media Group. Mumo has a bachelor’s degree from the United States International University in Nairobi and a master’s degree jointly awarded by Aarhus University and the University of Hamburg.

Panellist - Subtopic: Covering the Great Lakes Region in the age of wars and democratic decline

Armel-Gilbert Bukeyeneza

Armel-Gilbert Bukeyeneza is a journalist-writer and media researcher. He is the founder of Ukweli Coalition Media Hub, which promotes in-depth and investigative journalism in East Africa, with a focus on the African Great Lakes region. He is the author of “La Bible et la Gâchette” (The Bible and the Trigger), an investigative book on the use of Christianity by political leaders in his home country, Burundi, to manipulate the masses for their political interests. 

Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM)

Introduction

Professor Jackie Harrison

Jackie Harrison is Professor of Public Communication, UNESCO Chair on Media Freedom, Journalism Safety and the Issue of Impunity and Chair of the interdisciplinary Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM) in the School of Journalism, Media and Communication at the University of Sheffield. She researches the civil power of the news, freedom of expression and the civil norm building capacity of news media. Her current research interests focus on the threats to free and independent journalism from states and as a form of transnational repression against journalists in exile.

CFOM Session at IJW2025 

Farewell speech by the co-founder and International Director of CFOM, Prof. William Horsley

Panellists:

Prof William Horsley

Prof. William Horsley is the co-founder and international director of CFOM, the Centre for Freedom of the Media, at the University of Sheffield. His international advocacy work has brought innovations and reforms that strengthen legal standards, government policies and mechanisms to protect journalists at risk for their work.  For many years he reported as a foreign correspondent for BBC TV and Radio News from places across Asia and Europe; and presented current affairs programmes including Europe Direct for BBC TV and Radio. He is the UK Chairman of the Association of European Journalists and a member of the UK Advisory Board of RSF, Reporters Without Borders. He played a key part in the establishment of the Council of Europe’s Safety of Journalists Platform , a Europe-wide system of verified alerts to counter attacks on journalists and media organisations. In addition to his CFOM International Director’s column he publishes articles and books concerning issues of media, international relations, and the rule of law. 

Prof Bojan Bugarič

Prof. Bojan Bugarič is Professor of Law at the University of Sheffield. Educated in Ljubljana, UCLA, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he has held visiting positions at Harvard and UCLA and served as Deputy Minister of the Interior in Slovenia. His research explores the intersections of populism, constitutionalism, and the rule of law. He has written two books, with Mark Tushnet, Power to the People: Constitutionalism in the Age of Populism, and Constitutionalism and Its Discontents, and has edited a book Research Agenda for Comparative Constitutional Law, also with Mark Tushnet.

Tami Hoffman

Tami Hoffman is Director of Public Policy at The Guardian, with a career spanning editorial, commercial, and policy roles at leading media organisations. She leads The Guardian’s work on AI copyright policy, guiding the organisation’s responsible use of AI in alignment with its journalistic values.

Special charge & presentation of students’ competitions awards

Prof Stephen Hincks

Prof. Stephen Hincks is the Director of Education in the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Sheffield. Stephen joined the University of Sheffield’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning as Reader in September 2017. Before then he studied Human Geography at the University of Liverpool prior to completing a PhD funded by the North West Regional Development Agency (NWDA). He moved to the University of Manchester in 2006 to take up a position as a Research Associate at the Centre for Urban Policy Studies (CUPS). He was subsequently promoted to Lecturer (2008-2013) and Senior Lecturer (2013-2017) at the Department of Planning and Environmental Management at the same institution Alongside Alasdair Rae, Stephen is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Regional Studies Association interdisciplinary open access journal Regional Studies, Regional Science. He is also a board member of the Regional Studies Association.

Dr Leo Appleton

Leo Appleton is the Director of Education for the School of Information, Journalism, and Communications at the University of Sheffield. After completing a degree in Information and Library Management at the University of Northumbria, Leo commenced a career in librarianship and have held management and leadership positions in several university libraries, as well as in Further Education colleges and NHS Hospital trusts. Since 2008, he has worked in senior library management posts at Liverpool John Moores University, University of the Arts, London and most recently was the Director of Library Services at Goldsmiths, University of London. He joined the Information School as a Senior University Teacher in June 2020. He has a Master’s degrees in both music and education as well as a PhD in Library and Information Science from Edinburgh Napier University. Leo is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP).