The Publisher of WikkiTimes, Haruna Mohammed Salisu, has been confirmed as a speaker at the upcoming Global Investigative Journalism Conference (GIJC), scheduled to take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The conference, which will bring together over 1,500 journalists from more than 100 countries, is one of the world’s largest gatherings dedicated to strengthening investigative reporting and defending press freedom.
Mr Mohammed will join a panel discussion titled “Privacy vs. Accountability: Countering Regulations that Affect Investigative Journalists.” The session will explore how investigative reporters worldwide navigate tightening privacy laws, data-protection rules, and legal intimidation that threaten press freedom.
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Other panellists include Léna Perczel, Legal Officer at the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ), specialising in strategic litigation at the intersection of data protection and press freedom; María Teresa Ronderos, Director of the Latin American Centre for Investigative Journalism (CLIP), which has coordinated more than 46 cross-border investigations with over 140 media partners; Pádraig Hughes, Legal Director at Media Defence; and Rahma Behi, a multilingual investigative journalist and digital strategist with over a decade of experience in cross-border reporting and multimedia storytelling.
The session will be moderated by Christopher Acosta, Director of the Latin American Conference on Investigative Journalism (COLPIN) under the Press and Society Institute (IPYS).
Mr Mohammed, a Nigerian journalist and founder of WikkiTimes, a digital newsroom amplifying local voices across northern Nigeria, is currently a graduate student at Indiana University, USA. His research focuses on media law, press freedom, newsroom sustainability and Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs).
Under Mr Mohammed’s leadership, WikkiTimes became the first Nigerian media outlet to join Reporters Shield, a global legal-protection mechanism designed to safeguard investigative journalists from vexatious lawsuits.
The outlet’s commitment to watchdog journalism, particularly in Nigeria’s under-covered northern regions, has exposed it to a sustained campaign of harassment and legal intimidation.
The organisation has been hit by at least 9 SLAPP suits since 2020, often coinciding with major investigations into corruption, illegal mining, or terrorism financing. In one instance, the newsroom’s website suffered over 400 coordinated cyber-attacks within 48 hours of publishing a high-profile story.
Physical intimidation, threats to journalists’ families, multi-billion-naira defamation suits, and digital sabotage have become routine in its operational environment.
