Dr Olunifesi Suraj, an Associate Professor in the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos and UNESCO Consultant on Media and Information Literacy has been elevated with two other professors, Jose Manuel of the University of Autonoma Barcelona (UAB), Spain and Esther, of the University of Sao Paulo (USP), Brazil to take over the leadership of UNESCO Global Universities Network on Media and Information Literacy (MILID).
Following a UNESCO MILID network agreement, the trio, Prof. Suraj, Prof. Jose and Prof. Esther will now lead the UNESCO Global Network for the next two years (2023-2025).
MILID is a UNESCO initiated network of Universities around the world that focus on Media and Information Literacy (MIL) research, policy and advocacy as a means of checking the menace of information disorders in the form of fake news, disinformation, misinformation and hate speech. The activities of this UNESCO University Network committed to fighting fake news through collaborative research usually culminated in a global MIL week.
The Global MIL week is an annual event to commemorate all the global MIL activities and it is usually hosted by different countries yearly. It will be recalled that the Nigerian Government hosted the MIL Global week in 2022 in Abuja. The event brought Universities, MIL Practitioners, Civil Organisations and government officials together to discuss MIL research findings in fighting fake news. Unfortunately, the global MIL week to be hosted the following year, 2023 by Jordan could not be due to the unrest in the Middle East as a result of Israel-Hamas ongoing war.
Dr Olunifesi Suraj was a member of the central working committee that successful hosted the event in Nigeria and was instrumental to the country’s intention to establish an MIL Institute.
Dr Suraj is also a member of the UN/UNESCO global experts in addressing hate speech through education.
