The International Press Council (IPC) will on Wednesday December 9, 2020 hold a media roundtable aimed at expanding the frontiers of the safety of journalists and press freedom in Nigeria through continued sensitisation of media professionals and other relevant stakeholders.
The roundtable which is to commemorate the year 2020 International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists (IDEI), is celebrated annually as declared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and adopted by the UN General Assembly.
According to a statement by the programme officer/Journalists safety alert desk officer of the IPC, Melody Lawal, there would also be a stakeholders forum on Journalists’ safety and press freedom limitations in Nigeria, and shall feature a presentation of findings of a survey on the perception of stakeholders on the state of safety of journalists and press freedom in Nigeria.
She said the highlights of the roundtable shall include the main address by renowned scholar and public affairs commentator, Professor Ayo Olukotun of Onabisi Onabanjo University on the theme: “X-raying the encumbrances of journalists’ safety and press freedom in Nigeria: Action point for stakeholders.
There shall also be a panel discussion during which stakeholders from Nigeria Union of Journalists, Nigerian Guild of Editors, GOCOP, among others, shall react to the main address in the context of engendering press freedom and safety of journalists in Nigeria.
The event, organized under the auspices of the Nigerian Journalists Safety Initiative is one of the components of a three-year project on ‘Safety Awareness and Impactful Reporting of Communities’ being implemented by IPC with the support of the Open Society Foundation (OSF).
