By Olufemilade Oyinade
Discussions on the roles of the Media at the sub-national levels of government will take the centre stage at the 14th edition of the annual Wole Soyinka Centre Media Lecture Series themed – Can democracy work without a strong sub-national media?
The event will hold as a webinar on Wednesday 13 July 2022 by 2pm (WAT). It will also serve as the public launch of the Collaborative Media Engagement for Development Inclusivity and Accountability (CMEDIA) project of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ).
Chiedo Nwankwor, Vice Dean for Education and Academic Affairs, Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced and International Studies (SAIS) and Kole Shettima, Director, MacArthur Foundation Africa office, will lead the conversations along with Ibiba Don Pedro, Managing Director, National Point; Haruna Mohammed, Co-publisher, Wikki Times.
Others are: ‘Fisayo Soyombo, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism and Social Justice; Adaora Onyechere, Executive Director, Gender Strategy Advancement International and Mansur Liman, Director-General of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) as panellists at the event to be moderated by Uduak Amimo, broadcaster and executive coach.
The saturation of media at the centre and the lack of accountability at the state and local government levels, even as the nation heads for the 2023 general elections, informed WSCIJ’s choice of the theme to draw attention to the need for an independent media holding government to account at the sub-national levels towards a vibrant and thriving democracy. The lecture event will mark the 88th birthday of Wole Soyinka, the grand patron of WSCIJ.
The Collaborative Media Engagement for Development Inclusivity and Accountability (CMEDIA) is a multi-level intervention for media independence and government accountability supported by the MacArthur Foundation. It is working through 26 partner organisations to improve public awareness and the ecosystem for transparency, accountability and good governance and amplify marginalised voices especially at state and local government levels and the private sector.
Interested participants may register for the webinar with this link to join the discussion which will include the media, industry experts, private sector leaders, government ministries and agencies, pressure groups, policy makers, students, members of the diplomatic corps and other stakeholders in the civil society.
About WSCIJ
The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation with social justice programmes aimed at exposing corruption, regulatory failures and human rights abuses with the tool of investigative journalism.
The initiative started in 2005 under the name Wole Soyinka Investigative Reporting Award (WSIRA), and It operated as an award-giving organisation till 2008 when it took on the name Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ).
The change in name became necessary to reflect the intention of the coordinators to embrace a more robust line of activities; such that have greater capacity for engendering the appropriate values of investigative journalism in the Nigerian media environment.
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