Award-winning BBC Foreign Correspondent Fergal Keane will give a public lecture on the challenges facing the media in the University of Limerick on Thursday, March 26.
The distinguished Cork-born journalist has covered most of the global war zones over the past 25 years and won several awards for his fearless reporting – including an OBE from Queen Elizabeth for his services to Journalism in 1996.
Commenting on the background to his lecture ‘The Struggle for Reason’, Mr Keane said: “I will deal with the greatest challenge we face in journalism today – the battle for reason in a world overwhelmed by propaganda, gross simplification, powerful lobby groups and armies of internet trolls.
“I will speak about my belief that the obligation to fact, complexity, nuance and context has never been more vital – rigour and more rigour are required.”
University of Limerick Head of Journalism Mary Dundon said they were delighted to have such a distinguished journalist giving a public lecture on one of the main challenges facing the fast-changing multimedia world.
“Today we are all bombarded with ‘information’ from a plethora of multimedia sources and the challenge we face is to discern the truth and fact from the propaganda put out by powerful lobby groups.
“We believe it is a matter of public interest that our students and many people in the region will be interested hearing about and contributing to the Questions and Answers session afterward,” Ms Dundon added.
The UL lecture represents something of a homecoming for Fergal Keane who started his journalism career in the Limerick Leader 35 years ago in 1979. He then went on to work for The Irish Press, RTE, and the BBC in Northern Ireland, South Africa and Asia.
He was named as overall winner of the Amnesty International Press Awards in 1993 and won an Amnesty television prize in 1994 for his investigation of the Rwandan genocide, Journey into Darkness.
He is the only journalist to have won both the Royal Television Society Journalist of the Year award and the Sony Radio Reporter of the Year in the same year – 1994.
Throughout career Mr. Keane has won several more UK and international awards for his reporting, including The Voice of The Viewer award and a Listener Award for his for his BBC Radio 4, From Our Correspondent dispatch, Letter to Daniel, addressed to his newborn son in 1996.
The lecture will be held in the ground floor of the Foundation Building of the University of Limerick in lecture theatre FB 028. There is no fee for the lecture but tickets must be booked in advance by contacting: mary.i.dundon@ul.ie
Closing date for booking tickets in Tuesday March 24 at 5pm.
