Olayinka Ilori/
Nigerian journalist and Africa’s most decorated Editor, Oluwatoyosi Ogunseye, has emerged Vice President of the World Editors Forum (WEF) along with the Editor-in-Chief of The Strait Times, Warren Fernandez, who is now President.
Ogunseye, who is the Head, West Africa, at BBC World Service announced her emergence in a post on Facebook.
The post says: “Today, the World Editors Forum voted the Editor-in-Chief of The Strait Times, Warren Fernandez as President and me as Vice President. Warren and I are pleased to serve and humbled to lead the World Editors Forum. After sitting on the board for over three years, I’m most grateful for the confidence my colleagues reposed in me. Warren and I have promised to give WEF our best. The icing on the cake was reconnecting with my Punch family!”
WEF is the leading network for print and digital editors of newspapers and news organisations around the world.
Ogunseye and Fernandez, who is also the editor-in-chief of Singapore Press Holdings’ English, Malay and Tamil Media Group, were elected at the annual meeting of WEF in Scotland on Saturday, June 1.
Ogunseye, a former Sunday Editor of The Punch Newspaper and a Mandela Washington Fellow, has won over 30 media awards including CNN MultiChoice African Journalist of the Year Awards (2011 and 2013), Knight International Journalism Award; Nigerian Academy of Science Journalist of the Year 2013, The Future Awards Africa 2013, Child-Friendly Reporter of the Year by the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) in her career spanning 16 years.
A graduate of University of Lagos where she received a BSc in Biochemistry, Ogunseye also got a post-graduate diploma in print journalism from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) and MSc in Media and Communications from Pan-Atlantic University. She’s presently studying for her PhD in Politics and International Relations at the University of Leicester, United Kingdom.
Ogunseye ventured into journalism as a second-year student of the Department of Biochemistry, University of Lagos when she started reporting news happening on campus in The Sun Newspaper at the time when Mr Femi Adesina was the Editor in 2003.
The News Editor at The Sun Newspaper, then, Mr Musa Ebomhiana, placed her on the Crime Desk under a multiple-award-winning journalist, Dipo Kehinde.
She later moved to News Star Newspaper as a Senior Correspondent in 2007.
In 2009, she joined The Punch Newspaper as the Sub-Assistant Editor for news and politics till 2012. She had been an investigative journalist since 2006, before she became the Editor of Sunday Punch after serving as News Editor and Senior Correspondent, specializing in crime on both local and international levels.
Ogunseye had also set a record as the first and youngest female editor at The Punch Newspaper, where the Director of Operations then, Mr Azu Ishiekwene had announced in his column that the world should watch out for her.
NewsmakersNG learnt that since around two decades ago when WEF was established, this is the first time that its leadership would be from Asia and Africa.
Speaking shortly after their emergence, Dave Callaway, outgoing WEF president, said: “Warren and Toyosi’s elections ensure WEF is in good hands as we encounter the challenges of the next two years. With media freedom under attack from all sides, a diverse, experienced leadership is what we need to help bring our industry together and take it forward.”
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