The 17th Wole Soyinka Centre Media Lecture organised by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), will hold on Sunday, 13 July 2025.
The Executive Director of WSCIJ, Mrs Motunrayo Alaka in a press statement said the programme will hold at 5:00pm (WAT) on Zoom, on the theme “Surveillance, Safety and the Silencing of Truth.”
The event according to Mrs Alaka will feature Angela Quintal, regional director for Africa at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), as keynote speaker alongside panellists Quinn McKew, executive director of ARTICLE 19; Fisayo Soyombo, founder of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ); and Sonja Smith, Associated Press correspondent. The session will be moderated by Jimeh Saleh, former editor, BBC/MacArthur Foundation Series.
“Surveillance, intimidation and attacks on journalists are increasingly shaping how media is practiced in many countries. These threats deserve more attention in global conversations about democracy and civic space. This year’s lecture will interrogate how sophisticated surveillance technologies, institutionalised harassment, and shrinking press freedoms are undermining the safety of journalists and the public’s right to know,” Alaka stated.
The Wole Soyinka Centre Media Lecture Series is an annual event hosted by WSCIJ to interrogate the media’s role in shaping democracy, accountability and public discourse.
Held every 13 July since 2009 to commemorate the birthday of Professor Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first Nobel Laureate in Literature and grand patron of the Centre, the lecture engages the most pressing issues facing journalism and democracy today.
