Journalists are “not doing a good job” at raising awareness of press freedom issues in a way that will galvanise public opinion because it is not seen as a “sexy” topic, a journalism academic has said.

Speaking at the Defend Media Freedom conference in London, co-hosted by the UK and Canadian governments, yesterday, Sussex University journalism professor Ivor Gaber also criticised the “shameful” level of coverage the event had received in the UK national press.

He claimed he had only seen print coverage in the Daily Telegraph, although the Guardian website and the Mail Online had covered the main session on Wednesday with Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Special Envoy on Media Freedom Amal Clooney.