KINGSTON, R.I. – April 2, 2025 – Walter V. Robinson, who led the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team that won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for its investigation into the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, will deliver the University of Rhode Island’s 2025 Taricani Lecture on First Amendment Rights on Tuesday, April 8, at 5 p.m. at the Higgins Welcome Center, 45 Upper College Road, Kingston.

The Spotlight investigation, which hit the newspaper’s front page in early 2002, exposed a decades-long cover-up of the crimes of about 250 priests in Boston. Among the earliest media coverage of the sexual abuse scandal, the Globe’s reporting thrust the issue into the national limelight. The Globe’s investigation was turned into a 2015 Academy Award-winning film, “Spotlight,” that starred Michael Keaton as Robinson.

“The Taricani visiting journalist series celebrates journalists who have done extraordinary work in the field of investigative reporting,” said Daniel Hunt, chair of journalism and public relations in URI’s Harrington School of Communication and Media. “With Walter Robinson’s experience leading the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team, he is one of the most qualified people to speak about investigative journalism’s future and the importance of press freedom.”

In his talk, Robinson, editor-at-large for The Globe, will discuss the challenges facing investigative journalists today when press freedoms are threatened and the role of a free press in a democratic society. The lecture is free and open to the public; registration is required. The discussion will be moderated by Karen Bordeleau, executive editor of The New Bedford Light, a member of the Rhode Island Journalism Hall of Fame, and the first woman to hold the top editor’s post at The Providence Journal.

A 1974 graduate of Northeastern University, Robinson’s coverage of local, national and international events started gracing the Globe’s front page while he was still in college. He went on to cover politics and government for The Globe, including covering the White House during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and served as the Globe’s lead reporter on presidential elections in 1988 and 1992.

Robinson also was the newspaper’s Middle East Bureau chief during the first Persian Gulf War, and was a roving foreign and national correspondent in the late 1990s. Included among his work is coverage of the looting of artworks by the Nazis that ended up in U.S. museums and the illicit international trade in looted antiquities – reporting that earned him the first-ever Outstanding Public Service award from the Archaeological Institute of America.

Robinson holds the position distinguished professor of journalism at his alma mater, Northeastern, since 2007, and was the Edith Kinney Gaylord Visting Professor of Investigative Journalism as the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. In both academic roles, he has worked with investigative reporting students to produce highly regarded page-one stories for The Globe and other media outlets.

Robinson’s three-day visit to URI will include visiting with Harrington School students, faculty and staff at several events, including visits to classes on multimedia reporting, media writing and television news.

“Our journalism students will get to meet Robinson in small classroom settings and ask about his experiences working on some of the most salient investigative stories of our time,” Hunt said. “Free speech and freedom of the press are vital to a democratic society. For investigative journalism to be successful in holding people accountable for their actions, we need to understand the difficulties of reporting on sensitive subject matter.”

The Taricani Lecture on First Amendment Rights honors the memory of award-winning journalist Jim Taricani H ’18, a veteran Rhode Island journalist and nationally respected investigative reporter for nearly four decades with WJAR-TV in Providence. A valued member of the URI community, Taricani was the husband of Laurie White ’81, president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, who, with the Taricani family, endowed the lecture series in his memory, his work and his courageous commitment to protect First Amendment rights.

To help support the Taricani Lecture in its effort to bring distinguished local, national and international journalists to campus to share their expertise and perspective to this critically important topic, visit the University of Rhode Island Foundation & Alumni Engagement gift page.