THE THIRD WOLE SOYINKA CENTRE MEDIA LECTURE SERIES
The Third Wole Soyinka Centre Media Lecture Series holds on Wednesday 13 July, 2011, at the NECA Building, Agidingbi, Lagos at 10:00am with the theme: 'Re-evaluating local governance in Nigeria: What responsibilities for the media.'
This year, the lecture event is organized in collaboration with the Orderly Society Trust (OST) and aims at stimulating the media to deepen local governance reporting towards focusing on democracy at the grassroots in a bid to engage the tools of a downward-upward mechanism to appropriately mould governance in the country even as it essentially triggers discussions around this most critical tier of government on the heels of the Local Government elections in 2012.
Professor Bayo Olukoshi, Director of the United Nations African Development and Planning (UNIDEP), Dakar, Senegal has been billed as the Guest Speaker. Discussants include representatives of the civil society, academia, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON).
The tradition of holding the event on July 13, which this year is Professor Wole Soyinka's 77th birthday, started in 2009 as a deliberate effort to honour this illustrious African whom the Centre is named after, even as we draw attention to current national issues.
The Wole Soyinka Centre Media Lecture Series is designed to periodically examine varying topical issues that have reverberating effects on perceived performance of the media, on the health of our country, Nigeria and its democracy. It intends to contribute to the body of knowledge of practitioners as well as increase awareness and debate around the nexus of media practice and socio-political development issues in the country.
Its maiden edition was hosted in 2008 and has in its wake respected personalities like Professor Harry Garuba of the African Institute, University of Cape Town, South Africa and Dr. Olatunji Dare, an Associate Professor of Journalism at Bradley University, Peoria Illinois USA and a former editorial page editor of The Guardian Newspaper as guest speakers.
Admittance to the lecture programme is open to members of the general public.
Signed: Motunrayo Alaka, Centre Coordinator
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The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) is a non-governmental organisation with a vision to stimulate the emergence of a socially just community defined by the ethics of inclusion, transparency and accountability through support to journalists. The Centre is named after Professor Wole Soyinka in recognition of his life-long work in support of the freedom of expression, freedom to hold opinion and freedom to impart them without fear or favour and without hindrance or interference.
The Orderly Society Trust (OST) was established to nurture and support institutions, ideas, values, practices and conventions which support 'order' in society. OST seeks to assist in overcoming the challenges of creating an orderly society by promoting initiatives which support the rule of law, transparency and accountability and the dissemination of ethics of integrity, patriotism, respect for civic obligation and etiquette.