About Us

The Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM) is an inter-disciplinary research centre with global outreach on issues of media freedom, independence and plurality, hosted in the School of Information, Journalism and Communication at the University of Sheffield. CFOM aims to inform and advise governments, policy-makers and stakeholders internationally on countering threats to media freedom, and to bring about positive changes to laws, policy and practice and raise standards of journalism safety worldwide. 

CFOM has been involved in a number of research and advocacy projects throughout the years, working with a number of partners to deliver research and events in the area of media freedom and journalism safety. CFOM is also home of the Journalism Safety Research Network (JSRN), a global network of over 300 researchers in academia, journalism and civil society organisations that brings together researchers with a common interest, concern or engagement with the safety of journalists, the issue of impunity and the promotion of free and independent journalism. 

CFOM’s legal hub, led by Dr. Gemma Horton, works on research concerning legislative threats against journalists and journalism, including SLAPPs and how the law is being weaponised to shut down critical reporting and silence journalists. This website has been developed following a one-day workshop hosted by the legal hub. In the workshop, it was emphasised that a training resource for those who might not have any formal training on SLAPPs would be beneficial. The CFOM legal hub team proceeded to then develop SLAPP’s Training. The website is intended to be a ‘one-stop-shop’ for information on SLAPPs. It does not replace professional legal advice. 

Contact Us

SLAPPs Training 
Centre for Freedom of the Media
School of Information, Journalism and Communication 
The Wave 
2 Whitman Road 
Sheffield
S10 2AH 
cfom@sheffield.ac.uk