Tamsin Mitchell

Tamsin Mitchell is an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow with the Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM), University of Sheffield. Her work explores the intersection between human rights, international relations/ politics and journalism studies. She completed her PhD in Politics at the University of York’s Centre for Applied Human Rights in 2021. Her current research analyses the varied strategies that journalist-human rights defenders use to address violence and impunity, including international human rights law and mechanisms, institutional and other domestic approaches, activism and self-protection, with a focus on Mexico and Honduras. She is currently preparing a monograph on this subject (Routledge, 2024). More generally her research interests include: civil society mobilisation/ activism; transnational advocacy; international human rights law/ norms and institutions; repression; human rights violations; protection/ self-protection of human rights defenders and journalists; freedom of expression; journalism and human rights; journalism and corruption; Latin America; fieldwork in high-risk environments. Tamsin has also worked in research/ advocacy for international human rights organisations for many years, including for PEN International and the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights, focusing on free expression in Latin America and Africa.

Definition of journalists' safety

I approach journalists' safety in a holistic way, including their physical, psychological, digital, legal, financial, political and professional security and, crucially, how impunity for attacks and threats affect this security.

Future plans for research on journalists' safety

I am currently preparing a monograph to be published by Routledge (2024) which will offer a qualitative, comparative, bottom-up exploration of journalists’ responses to impunity for violence against journalists in Mexico and Honduras, both formal democracies with high levels of violence. It will provide a critique of International Relations/ politics debates on the value of appeals to international human rights standards to local civil society. The book will show the centrality of self-protection and the significance of the norms of professional journalism over international human rights norms and legal rights in journalists’ mobilisation and accountability efforts.