Texas Tech College of Media & Communication hosted international journalists during the 2025 Graduate Research Symposium.
Periodistas Asesinatos is the heading displayed on the projection screen. The old saying goes, don’t kill the messenger. For the past five years, Professor Lyombe Eko, Ph.D., has welcomed guests to the International Journalism and Graduate Student Research Symposium. The idea began based on his personal experience in West Africa as a journalist, seeing his peers being arrested. Years later, a graduate course inspired a new event to focus on the importance of free press and highlight individuals who bravely tell stories instead of being silenced. In 2023, Eko was named William S. Morris Professorship in Innovation, Journalism, and Information. The Morris family were long-time owners of the Lubbock Avalanche Journal and had an interest in preserving the freedom of expression.
This symposium has welcomed journalists to tell their stories of the dangers of reporting in countries like the Middle East, Mexico, Russia, India and Africa.
“E pluribus unum translates to out of many, one. In order to function properly, the individual parts have to communicate with each other.” - Dean Bey-Ling Sha, Ph.D., College of Media & Communication
“Free press isn’t an idle concept, but something we have to continually exercise as
a right here in this country.”
- Provost and Senior Vice President Ronald Hendrick, Ph.D., Texas Tech University
“Yes, we see hope. We see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our duty is to help in that process with good information, with good stories.”
Yoani Sanchez, editorial director of the independen online news and information outlet 14ymedio.com in Havana, Cuba
“Change is not measured only in years lived, but in the number of lives that we were able to touch and impact we were able to create.”
-Mimi Mefo Newuh, radio and TV journalist at Deutsche Welle, Germany, from Cameroon, West Africa
“It’s very important to recognize these brave and influential journalists.”
-Kent Wilkinson, Ph.D., professor and director of the Thomas Jay Harris Institute for Hispanic and International Communication
Read about last year's event at the 2024 International Journalism Symposium.