Nigeria’s Embattled Fourth Estate

Ray Ekpu is currently editor-in-chief of Newswatch, the pathbreaking Nigerian newsweekly whose history he recounts below. Before joining in the founding of Newswatch, he was the chairman of the editorial board of the Concord Group of newspapers; he also edited the Nigerian Chronicle and the Sunday Times, one of Africa’s best-selling weeklies. Mr. Ekpu holds a degree in communications from the University of Lagos, and has pursued advanced study in journalism at Indiana University. In 1987 the World Press Review named him International Editor of the Year, citing him for “courage, enterprise, and leadership on the international level in advancing press freedom and responsibility and defending human rights and furthering journalistic excellence.”