Professor Jon Silverman

Professor of Media and Criminal Justice

Jon Silverman

Jon Silverman is Research Professor of Media & Criminal Justice at the 天美传媒 (UK). His main area of research is media and post-conflict justice/governance in both West and East Africa.

He has written extensively about international criminal tribunals, including the ICC, and attended both the Rwanda and Yugoslavia tribunals as a reporter.

Before becoming an academic, he was a journalist for the BBC and worked for 13 years (1989-2002) as Home/Legal Affairs Correspondent, winning the Sony Radio Journalist of the Year award in 1996 for his coverage of the UK鈥檚 war crimes investigations.


BA Upper-second, Cantab (1971). Fellow, Higher Education Academy.


Books/Chapters

  • Crime, Policy & the Media, Routledge, 2012.
  • Foreword to Media, Diaspora & Conflict, ed. Ogunyemi, 2017. Palgrave Macmillan
  • 鈥榊outube if you want to : camera phones, investigative journalism and social control, in The End of Journalism, ed.Charles, A. 2014. Peter Lang.
  • Cats, convicts & clerics : how media and politicians have framed the Human Rights Act in Breaking the News, eds.Gordon,Rowinski & Stewart, 2013. Peter Lang.

Refereed articles

  • 鈥楾he International Criminal Court and Africa : A fractious relationship assessed鈥 (with Archangel Rukooko) in African Human Rights Law Journal Vol 19(1),2019.
  • 鈥楾he Justice Conundrum : Africa鈥檚 Turbulent Relationship with the ICC鈥 in Harvard International Law Journal Online Blog, 2019.
  • 鈥楳ediating Identity :The West African diaspora, conflict and communication鈥 in Crossings : Journal of Migration & Culture Vol 9(1), 2018
  • 鈥楴ewspaper coverage of a Sierra Leone war crimes trial : 鈥渁 continuation of conflict by other means鈥濃 (with Abou Binneh-Kamara) Ecquid Novi/African Journalism Studies.Vol 37(2), 2016.
  • 鈥楾he Media鈥檚 Reporting of War Crimes Trials and its impact on post-conflict democracy in Sierra Leone and Liberia鈥 (with Bernadette Cole). Journal of African Media Studies, Vol.5 (1), 2013.
  • 鈥業 feel your Pain鈥 : Terrorism, the Media and the Politics of Response (with Dr.Lisa Thomas) Crime, Media Culture, Vol.8 (3) 2012.

Member, East Midlands Board of Remembering Srebrenica.


  • Media
  • Post-conflict justice in Africa
  • International criminal courts