2023, year of assault on journalists

Media practitioners, analysts and observers have described 2023 as year of assaults and impunity against journalists.

Globally, the number of journalists killed in the line of duty fell this year, despite the fierce war in Gaza, however. In the first 11 months of 2023, 45 journalists were killed carrying out their work, down from 61 in 2022, according to the annual report by the Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

It was the smallest number since 33 died in 2002, largely owing to a major drop of killing in Latin America. While 63 journalists have been killed in the Middle East since the October 7 start of fighting between Israel and Islamist group Hamas, only 17 of those deaths fell under RSF’s definition.

According to RSF Secretary General Christophe Deloire, “it takes nothing away from the tragedy in Gaza but we are observing a regular decline, and are very far from the 140 journalists killed in 2012 and again in 2013 because of the wars in Syria and Iraq.”

The International Criminal Court (ICC), last Wednesday, confirmed it was investigating possible crimes against journalists during the ongoing Israeli aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip.

RSF, already, has filed a war crimes complaint with the ICC regarding the deaths of Palestinian journalists killed in the Israeli aggression on the strip. The office of the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan has also assured that crimes against journalists are included in its investigation into Palestine.

Moreover, the preliminary investigations of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) showed that at least 79 journalists and media workers were among the more than 24,000 killed since the war began on October 7.

CPJ confirmed that journalists in Gaza face particularly high risks as they try to cover the conflict during the Israeli ground assault, including devastating Israeli airstrikes, disrupted communications, supply shortages, and extensive power outages.

Furthermore, CPJ is investigating numerous unconfirmed reports of other journalists being killed, missing, detained, hurt, or threatened, and of damage to media offices and journalists’ homes.

Though Nigeria moved up six places in 2023 to 123 from 2022 ranking, which was 129, RSF said Nigeria still remains one of West Africa’s most dangerous and difficult countries for journalists to operate. It said Nigerian journalists are often spied on, attacked, arbitrarily arrested or even killed,

Data from The International Centre for Investigative Reporting, (ICIR) indicates 39 journalists were harassed across the country by state and non-state actors in 2023.

About half of the incidents occurred during the 2023 general elections held between February and March. Some of the assaults on journalists in Nigeria include that of ICIR’s Executive Director, Dayo Ayetan, by thugs while covering election exercise in Gwagwalada area of Abuja on February 25. He was beaten up by his assailants, who tore his clothes and stole his phone, car key, purse and a pouch containing his debit cards, driver’s licenses and other items.

In the same vein, precisely February 25, the day of the presidential election, Haruna Mohammed Salisu, the publisher of WikkiTimes, an online investigative platform based in Bauchi State, was arrested by the security details of Governor Bala Mohammed while he was covering the exercise.

Similarly in the same month, a reporter with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Pauline Kuje Vana, was attacked by a mob while covering a fire outbreak at the Maiduguri Monday Market in Borno state. Vana and her crew were attacked by the mob while trying to file a live report on the incident.
On March 18 in Nasarawa State, officials of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) attacked a journalist with Breeze FM in Lafia, Edwin Philip, while reporting the governorship and state House of Assembly elections in the state.

On the same day in the Gwale Council of Kano State, a journalist with Premier Radio, Ashiru Umar, was attacked by armed thugs while covering the poll.

Also in March, a cameraman and other crew members with Arise TV were assaulted around the Elguishi palace in Lagos. The cameraman sustained facial injuries, and his equipment was seized.

In the same month, the Publisher of Cross River Watch, Agba Jalingo, was remanded in prison by a Federal High Court in the FCT over a report published against Elizabeth Frank Ayade, sister-in-law to the state governor at the time, Ben Ayade. Ayade also demanded N500 million as compensation. Jalingo was apprehended in August 2022 by security operatives who laid siege to his Lagos residence for hours and moved him to Abuja after the arrest.

The journalist has been detained several times previously, including in 2021, when officials of the Cross River State Police command arrested him over a planned June 12 protest. He was granted bail days later with stringent conditions, including a N500,000 bail bond and a surety who must own a landed property within the FCT.

Similarly in March, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) fined Channels Television about $11,000 for airing an interview with Labour Party’s vice presidential candidate, Yusuf Datti-Ahmed.

The NBC said Datti-Ahmed’s commentary on the February presidential election, in which the ruling party’s Bola Tinubu emerged as the winner, violated the broadcasting code and could threaten national security.

In April, a man in military uniform and a woman, who identified themselves as soldiers of the Nigerian Army, led a mob action against a journalist with the ICIR, Sinafi Omanga.

The journalist had noticed a case of jungle justice against two men accused of stealing a mobile phone, which the military officials were a part of, and had picked up his device to record the incident when they pounced on him. He was robbed of at least N9,000 and other valuables in the process.

Also in the same month, freelance photojournalist Ben Uwalaka, who reports for Daily Trust Newspaper, was attacked by a Police officer in Lagos while covering a protest by aviation workers.

In May, a female journalist with Cliqq TV in Katsina, Rukayya Jibia, was assaulted by policemen attached to the state Police command for speaking up against the parade of four young women arrested over alleged prostitution by the Police when the ladies had not been convicted or tried.

On May 26, Police officers detained a Premium Times reporter, Ameh Ejekwonyilo, at the Supreme Court Police station for over four hours. Ejekwonyilo was arrested for recording a tussle between a policewoman and a woman in court witnessing proceedings. Though Police authorities had stated that it was not a crime to record a public scene, the reporter was apprehended by the security operatives and his phone was seized.

The official injured Uwalaka on the hand and broke his camera’s screen, preventing its lens from re-attaching. The assault came after Uwalaka refused to delete pictures taken during the protest as ordered by the officer, prompting him to seize the journalist’s camera, punch him in the hand several times and detain him at the nearby police station for nearly an hour.

In July, police officials in Imo arrested a broadcast journalist in the state, Chinonso Uba, known to be critical of the government under the administration of Hope Uzodimma.
When he was apprehended, it was unclear if the arrest was connected to his work, as the security operatives gave no reason.

In September, WikkiTimes Editor, Yakubu Mohammed, came under surveillance by officials of the Nigeria Police Force, who placed him on their watch list after he published a report that exposed terrorism funding and illegal mining in Niger State.

The investigation exposed how Chinese-allied miners operating under the licenses of Eso Terra Investment Limited and Majelo Global Resources Limited were stealing Nigeria’s natural resources while allegedly bribing armed bandits of the Dogo Gide group.

Officials of the Bauchi and Niger states Police Command tracked Yakubu’s phone lines along with those of his wife, friend and colleagues, whom they threatened and described as sub-targets.

Similarly, The ICIR news editor, Marcus Fatunmole, was detained for six hours by security operatives in the FCT in December while investigating a mass transportation scheme in city.

Although Fatunmole presented a valid identity card identifying him as The ICIR journalist, he was detained between 9.00am and 2.00pm at the Eagle Square security outpost before eventually being taken to the Central Police Station, Federal Secretariat in Abuja.