Journalism Celebrates 10 Years in UL

BBC Africa Editor Fergal Keane gives keynote lecture in UL 

The BBC Africa Editor Fergal Keane will give a keynote lecture at a major journalism conference in the University of Limerick on Thursday April 11^th 2019.

Mr Keane who is the new Adjunct Professor of Journalism at UL will give the keynote lecture on: Journalism and Democracy under Siege: How Can We Combat the Threat of Fake News and the Rise of Populism.

The lecture which is part of the Celebrating 10 Years of Journalism@UL Conference will start at 10.30am in the Graduate Entry Medical School (GEMS) at UL.

This will be followed by a panel discussion on the topic by some of the country’s leading journalists and editors including: RTE broadcaster Miriam O’Callaghan; Irish Independent Editor Fionnán Sheahan; Irish Times News Editor Mark Hennessy and University of Limerick Professor of Politics Maura Adshead.

Head of Journalism at the University of Limerick Mary Dundon said that they are delighted to have someone of Fergal Keane’s caliber giving the keynote address at their 10^th anniversary conference.

“He is an award-winning journalist who has covered most of the global war zones over the past 28 years and won numerous international awards for his fearless reporting – including an OBE from Queen Elizabeth for his services,“  Ms Dundon said.

Mr Keane started his career in journalism with the Limerick Leader newspaper and he then moved to the Irish Press and RTE. He became the Ireland Correspondent for the BBC in 1989 and was subsequently promoted to a range of BBC foreign postings including: South Africa Correspondent; Asia Correspondent; Special Correspondent and Africa Editor.

Mr Keane’s lecture in GEMSO – 016 lecture hall will be followed by the panel discussion with some of the country’s leading journalists and a Q&A session with the audience.

In the afternoon, there will be a panel discussion featuring some of the most success UL journalism graduates including: Hilary McGann, CNN; Cillian Sherlock, RTE; Denise Calnan, Irish Independent and Andrew Roberts, The Journal and Michelle Hogan, The Leinster Express.

They will discuss: How Journalism@UL Helped Us to Secure a Successful Career in National and International Media Organisations.

This will be followed by a panel discussion profiling UL’s latest journalism and media academic research. The topic: Journalism, Discourse, and Inequality, will be discussed by: Dr Fergal Quinn;  Dr  Martin Power, Kathryn Hayes; Audrey Galvin, Dr Maria Rieder and Dr Muireann Prendergast.

The conference is open to all members of the campus community and members of the public