Bill Orme Advisor

Bill Orme is an author, editor, and independent consultant specialised in media development and strategic communications. He currently represents the Brussels-based Global Forum on Media Development (GFMD) at the United Nations, with a focus on freedom-of-information commitments in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and works as a consultant on media reform and public information projects in West Africa and Latin America. From 2002 to 2014 he served as the UN Development Programme’s spokesman and head of External Communications and as Chief of Communications & Publishing for the UN Human Development Reports.

A veteran foreign correspondent, Bill was Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in the 1990s. He returned to journalism as a Middle East correspondent for The New York Times and UN bureau chief for The Los Angeles Times. Bill was the founding editor of LatinFinance, a regional business monthly, after reporting from Latin America in the 1980s for The Washington Post, The Economist, and other publications.

He is the author of “Understanding NAFTA: Mexico, Free Trade and the New North America” (University of Texas, 1996) and “A Culture of Collusion: An Inside Look at the Mexican Press” (University of Miami, 1997). Books to which he contributed chapters include “Journalists in Peril” (Transaction, US, 1998); “Crimes of War” (W.W. Norton, US, 1999); “Encyclopedia of International Media and Communications” (Elsevier, 2003); “Media in Support of Sustainable Development” (UNESCO, 2015); and “The Trust Factor” (Ethical Journalism Network, UK, 2015).

He was an editor and writer for the annual CPJ ‘Attacks on the Press’ reports (1993-98) and the UN Human Development Reports (2003-2007; 2010-2014). Bill serves on the advisory board of the National Endowment for Democracy’s Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) and is a founding partner of International Media Development Advisers.