African Editor To Speak at ACU About Freedom of Press
for immediate release Feb. 11, 1998
WHO/WHAT: Wafula Oguttu, editor of The Monitor, the largest daily
newspaper in Uganda, will speak to students in Abilene Christian
University's Department of Journalism and Mass Communication.
WHEN/WHERE: Friday, Feb. 13
- * 8 a.m. - Communication Law class, Don Morris Center Room 141
- * 11:45 a.m. - Society of Professional Journalists lunch, Mrs. Don H.
Morris Living Area
- * 1 p.m. - Feature Writing class, Don Morris Center Room 307
- * (Other interview times may be available during the day.)
WHY/HOW: Oguttu will speak about the challenges of the press in countries
with low literacy rates, many languages and very oppressive governments.
After surviving the Idi Amin regime and the even more deadly regimes that
followed, The Monitor became one of the largest and most popular papers in
East Africa. Both the senior editor and a reporter were recently thrown in
jail because of an unfavorable story written about the country's president.
Oguttu and the paper's legal staff have been the first to challenge the
"new" freedom of speech laws guaranteed in the 1996 constitution. (He is
also in the United States to be a featured speaker at a journalism and
public policy conference at Duke University.)
DETAILS: ACU employees George and Kristen Saltsman and Abilene's Leapfrog
Technologies/ Abilene Online work with The Monitor to produce the
AfricaNews Web site (www.africanews.com), one of the world's leading
resources for news from Africa. The Web site's roots are in a Uganda Web
site created several years ago by ACU alumnus Edward Baliddawa of Uganda,
when he was a student.
If you are a member of the media who would like more information about this release, please contact Malissa Endsley, director of media relations, at endsleym@nicanor.acu.edu
or call 915-674-2692.
- This page is maintained by Malissa Endsley, endsleym@nicanor.acu.edu.
- Last update: February 11, 1998
- http://www.acu.edu/people/news/wafula.html
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