Edetaen has worked on access to information, media freedom and freedom of expression, media development, human rights and democracy issues in Nigeria, regionally and internationally for about 25 years. He holds Bachelor of Arts degree in English Studies from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife in Nigeria and a Masters degree in International Journalism from City University, London in the United Kingdom. He also has a diploma in NGO Management from Galilee College in Israel, and is a former visiting media fellow at the DeWitt Wallace Center for Communications and Journalism at Duke University in North Carolina in the United States.
In 2013, he served as a member of the International Advisory Committee for UNESCO’s project on “The Safety of Online Media Actors Doing Journalism” and was also in 2013 named an Internet Freedom Fellow by the U.S. State Department. In 2004, he was honoured by the Centre for Media Education and Networking in Lagos for his “Outstanding Contributions to the Development of Journalism in Nigeria” and in 2011, he was honoured with the “Pan African Award for Information Activism” at the Pan African Conference on Access to Information in Cape Town, South Africa, for his “tireless struggle over 15 years in advancing media and information issues,” which culminated in the historic passage of Nigeria’s Freedom of Information. In 2013, he was honoured by the Government of Lagos State and conferred with the title of “Crusader for Freedom of Information” for his role in the advocacy for the adoption of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011 in Nigeria. In 2017, he was conferred with the “Lifetime Award for Journalistic Excellence” by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) in recognition of his work in defence of media freedom and advocacy for Freedom of Information and in 2018, he was conferred with the “Defender of Press Freedom Award” by the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), in recognition of the fact that he “has spent nearly all of his professional life, spanning a period of over 30 years, as a journalist and an advocate for media freedom, freedom of expression and as a human rights defender.”
Edetaen is a former Co-Chair and currently a member of the National Steering Committee of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in Nigeria as well as a member of the Board of Directors of International Media Support (IMS), an international media development organization based in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is also Chair of the African Freedom of Expression Exchange (AFEX), a network of freedom of expression organizations in Africa. He is Chair of the Board of Directors of the International Press Centre (IPC) in Lagos and has previously served as a member and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) in Accra, Ghana; he was the founding Chairperson of the African Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC), based in Kampala, Uganda, and is currently a member of its Governing Council; he has previously served as Convenor (Chair) and as a Council member of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), a global network of freedom of expression organizations; and is a member of the Working Group of the African Platform on Access to Information (APAI).
