Amnesty International (AI) has documented the different forms of attack on Nigerian journalists and media houses since 2015. The report, released last week in Abuja, said that between January and September 2019, about 19 journalists and some media houses have faced a variety of attacks from both state and Federal Government agencies.
According to AI’s report, five journalists were arrested in 2015, 16 in 2016, four in 2017, six journalists, including bloggers, were arrested in 2018. Eight media houses have been raided and harassed since 2015, including two radio stations, Fresh 105.9FM Ibadan, and Breeze 99.9FM in Nasarawa State. Daily Trust and Premium Times’ offices in Maiduguri, Abuja and Lagos were raided by security agencies this year alone while three journalists have been forced into hiding, some in detention.
Allegations against the journalists ranged from terrorism, sedition, treason, defamation of character and conspiracy to unlawful assembly. Agencies of state like the police, the State Security Service (SSS), the State Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), the much dreaded arm of the Nigerian police, all play prominent roles in the various attacks on journalists and journalism.
The imprint on the T-shirt worn by a handcuffed journalist, Agba Jalingo, who is being arraigned for alleged treason by the Cross River State government summarises our stand: “Every free society has a journalist”. The press is the backbone of democracy. It is not for nothing that it is described as the watchdog and the Fourth Estate. Its duty is to inform, educate, entertain, criticise and stimulate debate for a functional democracy.
That Nigeria was rescued from the stranglehold of a series of military regimes that distorted the country’s political history for almost three decades is partly due to the resilience and dedication of Nigerian journalists. So, for civilian governments that literally came to being on the back of Nigerian journalists in 1999 to turn round and consistently hound the same journalists is not only antithetical to the country’s development but also a negation of democratic values as well as a disservice to the people for whom democracy was fashioned in the first place.
We are worried about this irony.
Freedom of the press presupposes that communication and expression through all media organs, print and electronic, must be done freely and fairly. Indeed, the United Nation’s 1948 Declaration of Human Rights states that, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers”. Nigeria is a member of the United Nations and has equally domesticated some of the treaties and laws, and equally benefits from the programmes of UN agencies. We expect that the basic freedoms pursued by the global body must be respected by the country’s political class as leadership by example to the people.
We condemn the tendency to readily arrest, harass or detain journalists without following due process. Journalists practice their trade like all other professionals. However, we acknowledge that like all humans, journalists are not infallible. But, there are institutional processes that take care of errant professionals. The judiciary as the third arm of government is there for a reason. Erring journalists should be duly prosecuted while the courts deliver judgments without executive or legislative interference. What we have now is a system that makes the states and federal governments and their agencies the accusers, prosecutors and judges in their own cases.
Bereft of the gab of governance, governments are part of the people. Journalists have a vital role in any democracy, chief of which is to hold governments accountable. Instilling fear of any kind in the course of their duties is the greatest disservice to the people who are the reason for governments in the first place. The press cannot thrive in an atmosphere of threats and danger to their lives.
In full respect to the oaths taken during their inauguration after the elections, we urge political leaders at all levels to release all journalists illegally detained and arraign them in courts of competent jurisdiction to try them for whatever alleged offences or crimes they might have committed. Nigeria as the most populous nation in Africa must realise that in a globalised world, respect for the rule of law is a prized attitude that has far- reaching implications. An emasculated press signifies a still-birth in the pursuit of any regional or continental socio-economic or even political influence in the world.
Nigerian journalists have very functional professional bodies that ensure that journalists operate within the law and good conscience. They are almost self-sanitising; so we believe that in cases of obvious misjudgment of cases, those concerned can seek judicial redress instead of taking the laws into their own hands. Sadly, the people seem to watch as politicians often act outside the rule of law and often take the wrong cues. The seeming insecurity in the land, and most cases of jungle justice for alleged suspects might not be far from the people’s feeling that if governments that they see as role models can do as they please, why can’t they (the people) do same? Eventually everyone becomes a victim of lawlessness.
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