media rights

Julian Sher is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto’s Metropolitan University. He also works with Journalists for Human Rights and the Canadian Association of Journalists to help protect journalists and defend media freedoms around the world.

centre for free expression

Julian is moderating a series of public forums on Threats to Press Freedoms for the CFE.

The Battle to Cover the War in Gaza
August 27, 2024

With more than 100 media workers killed and few foreign correspondents allowed into Gaza, the ever-widening war in the Middle East has become one of the most devastating and yet most difficult to cover in recent years. How can journalists get access to what is happening when they are being obstructed in every way possible from first-hand information? How do they bring troubling news and analysis that might disturb people -- regardless which side they are on -- while not whipping up the tensions and hatreds swirling around the conflict?

Watch on YouTube here.

Resources and more information here

Silencing Across Borders – Governments Threaten Canadian Writers & Journalists
June 6, 2003

Canadian-based writers and journalists face increasing threats from authoritarian governments trying to intimidate and silence them through the use of digital platforms. Weaponizing devices and networks that writers and journalists use to reach their audiences, nation states can surveil, harass, threaten, and attack critical voices, silencing people who live in otherwise democratic countries. Join a panel of experts discussing the consequences of Digital Transnational Repression and what Canada can do to fight it.

Watch on YouTube

Putin’s War Against Journalists: One Year Later
April 19,
One year after Russian president Vladimir Putin launched his invasion and muzzled Russian media, what have we learned from the war against Ukraine and against journalists? Join three Russian journalists who spoke at a CFE panel one year ago to see how they have refused to be silenced. What are the challenges as the war heads into its second year?

More info here

Muslims and the Media

March 2, 2023

In his Massey Essay, Haroon Siddiqui argues that “our ostensibly free media… has played a leading role in the cultural warfare waged on Muslims, chiefly against [those].. who are fellow citizens in the West and, most ironically, against Muslim women.” Join a free Zoom panel of distinguished journalists who will critically discuss the role of Western media in relation to Islamophobia since 9/11.

Journalists’ Trauma

September 13, 2002

It’s not just war correspondents. Journalists who continually cover such tough topics as COVID, organized crime, protests, murders, and family abuse also face trauma. So do journalists, most commonly women, Indigenous, and racialized, who suffer vicious social media attacks in our increasingly polarized world. But reporters – and their employers – are often ill-equipped to handle the consequences. What are the costs of ignoring this problem – and what can be done about it?

Putin’s War on Journalists

May 5, 2022

Truth is the first casualty of war, as the saying goes. But Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken that a dangerous step further, directly targeting journalists who dare to report the truth. Over the years, Russian journalists have been killed, imprisoned, arrested, beaten and censored – but now, to wage his war in Ukraine, Putin has stepped up the attacks, all but silencing any remnants of an independent media. How are Russian journalists bravely fighting back – and what can we do to help?

Afghanistan: The War against Journalists

April 6, 2022

In the world’s longest-lasting war, Afghan journalists faced kidnappings and killings while combating the propaganda on all sides to get at the truth of the tragedy unfolding. That period led to a flowering of independent media and a new prominence for women journalists. With the Taliban’s return to power, journalists again face censorship, beatings, imprisonment, and closures. Many – especially women – have been forced to flee while others fight on. What is the future of media freedoms in Afghanistan and what can be done to help its journalists?

Silencing Kashmir

March 2, 2022

In Kashmir, press freedom has virtually disappeared. Journalists in Kashmir face threats, arrests, constant surveillance, criminal cases under terror laws, regular harassment by state authorities, and murder. After the world’s longest ever communications blackout following the political changes made to the state of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, the state of press freedom has dramatically worsened. The new Government media policy of 2020 leaves no journalist in Kashmir safe. What does this mean for the public and for journalists? What can be done?

journalists for human rights

Julian works with Journalists for Human Rights, which has coordinated an intense campaign to help journalists in Afghanistan since the return of the Taliban to power in August 2021. Below are some of the articles he has written for the Toronto-based organization.