UNESCO established the prize in 1997, with an independent Jury comprising eminent journalists and editors from around the world.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, has invited PREMIUM TIMES Managing Editor, Musikilu Mojeed, to serve on the independent Jury for the annual UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.

In a letter to Mr. Mojeed, UNESCO Director General, Irina Bokova, said the PREMIUM TIMES editor’s appointment was in recognition of his commitment to the principle of press freedom as well as the considerable contribution he had already made to this ideal.

Mr. Mojeed will serve on the 12-member Jury for an initial term of three years (2014 – 2016) and the appointment is renewable only once.

He already participated in this year’s judging of the prize and has been invited to attend the award ceremony and speak on a panel at the event scheduled for May 2-6 in Paris.

UNESCO established the prize in 1997, with an independent Jury comprising eminent journalists and editors from around the world. Every year since then, the prize has honoured a person, organization or institution that has made a notable contribution to the promotion of press freedom.

The members of the Jury also have assisted UNESCO in matters relating to media legislation, media ethics and the assessment of media in various countries.

A multiple award-winning journalist, Mr. Mojeed is a recent John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University. Before then, he was a Ford Foundation Fellow at The City University of New York’s [CUNY] Graduate School of Journalism where he obtained a Masters in Journalism.

Mr. Mojeed cut his reportorial teeth as an intern at the Nigerian Tribune and has worked with other leading publications in and outside the country – The News magazine, Tell magazine, Punch newspaper, The New York Times and NEXT, the flagship investigative newspaper, now defunct, where he served as Enterprise Editor.