David Cuillier, director of the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, gave the keynote address at a research conference in Buea, Cameroon, on Oct. 25, about the importance of information sharing to address climate change.

The conference, hosted at the University of Buea, focused on technology in solving climate change and conflict. Cuillier addressed the need for better information sharing in the world, including open-access research publications, closing of the digital divide, stronger open-government laws, and fact-based journalism to combat misinformation.

“We can produce the best science in the world, but if it isn’t shared – or believed – then its impact is limited,” Cuillier told the crowd of 800. “If we are to solve these existential problems together, then we must understand them together.”

Cuillier also spoke at a journalism conference in Buea on Oct. 24, also hosted by the University of Buea, about the importance of journalists to cover climate change more aggressively.

“Journalism matters more than ever to engage the public in solving climate change,” Cuillier said. While in Cameroon, Cuillier also spoke to college journalism classes and was interviewed by Cameroon public radio.

Cuillier is working with Cameroonian journalism scholar Kingsley Ngange on a book about press freedom and access to information laws in Africa. Twenty-nine nations in Africa – about half – have adopted freedom of information laws, almost all stronger than that of the United States. Ngange served as a Fulbright scholar at the Brechner FOI Project in 2023-24 to craft such laws for Cameroon.

The nonpartisan Brechner FOI Project has provided research and education in the people’s right to access government information since 1977.

Posted: October 29, 2024
Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Cameroon, Journalism, Keynote Address, Public Information