William Horsley is an experienced journalist who has written and reported extensively on issues of governmental power and the role of the media during more than 30 years of international reporting and analysis. He spent 15 years as a BBC foreign correspondent for TV and Radio correspondent based in
Asia and Europe. He is the editor and co-author of Goodbye to Freedom? A Survey of Media Freedom Across Europe (2007), and an updated Survey, Goodbyeto Media Freedom? in February 2008.

From 1998 to 2004 he presented EuropeDirect, BBC TV's leading programme on European society and politics, on BBCWorld and News 24. He has spoken on international affairs and media issues to the UK Parliament's research committees, the British Council in Tokyo, the Japan Society and the London School of Economics. Many of his reports are accessible on the BBC News website www.bbcnews.com. He is the co-author with Roger Buckley of a popular history of postwar Japan, Nippon: New Superpower (1990) and has published articles in many journals including The Economist, The Listener, The International Herald Tribune, and The Franco-German Forum. He speaks French, German and Japanese.

He is currently the Media Freedom Representative of the international Association of European Journalists and Chair of the AEJ's UK Section. He works closely
with UNESCO in the UK and the UK Press Freedom Network to organise campaigns for media freedom and to stage a major public debate on topical issues for World Press Freedom Day on May 3rd each year