15th July 2019
Dublin, Ireland
Welcome to the first edition of my blog. I intend to use it to share both reflections on important policy issues and some more personal impressions from my experiences here in Dublin and right across the beautiful country of Ireland. Today, however, I would like to focus on the incredibly important topic of media freedom. […]
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25th June 2019
Sheila Nduhukire has been a journalist for more than eight years, most recently working as a senior news anchor and reporter for NTV Uganda. She’s currently on a Chevening scholarship at Cardiff University in the UK. In this guest blog for the Foreign Office, she talks about being forced to prove herself as a female […]
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7th June 2019
Long-time Southern African regional correspondent Susan Njanji from Zimbabwe was one of very few black African female journalists to cover the genocide in Rwanda. Here she reflects on the challenges that she’s faced when reporting from the frontline as a woman – and why gender should never be a factor in deciding who gets the […]
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15th June 2018
Vienna, Austria
The guest of honour takes up his place at the podium. The room is hushed. He begins to speak. I was recently invited to attend the award of the honorary citizenship of the city of Vienna to Dr Hugo Portisch, at the splendid Vienna town hall. I had met Dr Portisch briefly when I was […]
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25th October 2016
Skopje, North Macedonia
I attended a conference on investigative journalism recently and had the chance to meet both journalists and those who support them. I took the opportunity to thank them for the difficult, and sometimes dangerous job they do. A job which is so important to the public interest and for which few journalists get the recognition […]
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8th January 2016
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
I was proud to be one of a number of Consuls General, who visited the offices of Cumhuriyet on 6 January. We made the following statement, and handed over a signed text: “As representatives of EU consulates based in Istanbul, we wish for Turkish journalists across the whole political spectrum to be able to exercise […]
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3rd May 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Today is World Press Freedom Day #WPFD. The work that journalists do is often dangerous and difficult. Unfortunately, 2013 was one of the most dangerous years for the profession across the world, with 70 journalists killed. Many of these were caught in the cross-fire of armed hostilities. They had been trying in exceedingly difficult circumstances […]
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3rd May 2012
Washington DC, USA
This week marks two auspicious events. One year ago yesterday, I started work at the Embassy in Washington. Even aside from the mad dash to the airport in Moscow, the missed flights and unplanned but very pleasant stopover in Copenhagen, it was quite the day to remember. It’s also World Press Freedom Day, the day […]
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23rd February 2012
Islamabad, Pakistan
I began my career as a journalist on Egypt’s Al-Ahram Weekly newspaper, spending two years living on a house-boat in the heart of Cairo and reporting on the Middle East. In 2002 I joined the UK civil service. Before the Foreign Office, I was a Senior Policy Advisor in the Cabinet Office, covering Russia, Georgia […]
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18th May 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
This year’s Excellence in Journalism Foundation awards ceremony is underway at the British Embassy in Budapest as I write. I felt rather honoured to be asked to act as Patron for these awards and to open tonight’s event. The Foundation honours quality journalism and champions press freedom, which are both issues that concern us – […]
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