Onslaught on journalists raises press freedom concerns

Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution empowers the media to hold public office holders accountable, but the political class is uncomfortable with this role for obvious reasons. The recent surge in attacks against journalists underscores this assertion. SUNDAY AIKULOLA reports that continued harassment of journalists by state actors or their assigns portends grave danger to the country’s democracy.

The recent surge in attacks against journalists in the country, has left media professionals deeply concerned about their safety, and that of members of their families. They fear that such brazen recklessness allegedly perpetrated by members of the political class etc., amounts to an assault on press freedom.

According to Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution: “The press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives in this chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people.”

Similarly, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) says: “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 and regardless of frontiers.”

These provisions notwithstanding, Reporters Without Borders has severally described Nigeria as one of West Africa’s most difficult and dangerous countries for journalists, who are often spied on, attacked, arbitrarily arrested, or even killed.

In its 2024 World Press Freedom Index, the group lists Nigeria as 112th out of the 180 member countries. Nigeria stood at 129 in the 2022 index.

From the foregoing scenario, media professionals, see the abduction and detention of journalists as a worrisome scenario.

The culture of coercion, they said, hinders journalists’ ability to perform their duties effectively and efficiently, and undermines the tenets of democracy and freedom of expression.

The crackdown on journalists, they argued, sends a worrisome message to whistle-blowers and activists, who seek to expose corruption and injustice. By gagging the press, they added that President Bola Tinubu- administration seeks to shield itself from accountability, perpetuating a culture of impunity where those in power are above the law.

For instance, on March 15 2024, armed men abducted the former Editor of FirstNews, Segun Olatunji, from his home in Lagos. He was held for two weeks until his release on March 28.

A combined team of 20 heavily armed military men, comprising operatives of the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Air Force, and the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) officers invaded Olatunji’s house to arrest him, after which he was detained, tortured and dehumanised for a story that he published.

Narrating his ordeal to the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), Olatunji described the experience as harrowing for him and his family.

According to him, his family members were traumatised by the abduction, and he felt dejected seeing his wife and children crying and begging the armed men not to take him away.

Similarly, on April 11, 2024, the Executive Director International Press Centre (IPC) Lanre Arogundade was accosted by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) while he was boarding a flight to attend a conference in Berlin, Germany.

Arogundade said the harassment by the SSS officials took about 40 minutes because they claimed his name was still flashing on their watchlist despite the declaration two years ago, by the Director General of the DSS, Yusuf Magaji Bichi, that his name had been removed when he met a delegation of the Nigeria chapter of the International Press Institute (IPI), led by Musikilu Mojeed.

Arogundade further informed the International Press Centre (IPC) management that the senior DSS official whom he was referred to, threatened to bar him from travelling, unless he produced his old passports. He described the request as “bizarre and ridiculous.”

Also on April 11, 2024, gunmen kidnapped a Channels TV reporter, Joshua Rogers in Rivers State, as he was returning from an official assignment at the Government House. He later regained freedom the following day.

On May 1, 2024, Daniel Ojukwu of the FIJ was arrested by officials of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun. He was subsequently moved to the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), Abuja, after spending four days in police custody in Lagos State.

Ojukwu was detained for 10 days before he was released on May 10, 2024. His release followed a protest by civil society organisations and journalists at the Force Headquarters, on May 9.

Also, on May 15, 2024, the police invited a reporter with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), Nurudeen Yahaya Akewushola, and the organisation’s managing Director over a purported investigation into a case of alleged cyberstalking.

The police invitation to the ICIR, dated April 16, 2024, but delivered to the organisation on May 15, demanded the presence of Akewushola and the ICIR managing directors at the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCC) in Abuja on April 24, to discuss a purported case of cyberstalking and defamation of character in which, according to NPF-NCC, Akewushola “featured prominently.”

As if those weren’t enough, on May 22, 2024, the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the Global Upfront online newspaper, Madu Onuorah, was whisked away by men of the Nigerian Police Force at 6.00 p.m. About 10 fully-armed policemen stormed his residence in Lugbe, Abuja, in two Sienna buses.

He was also arrested in the presence of his wife and children, who fruitlessly demanded from the police why they were arresting the head of the family. The police seized his phones, thereby completely cutting him off from communication with people, including his family members and lawyers.

In commemoration of this year’s Press Freedom Day, the Executive Director Centre for Media and Society (CEMESO), Akin Akingbulu, charged various associations in the media space to establish strategic relationships with the Nigeria Police and other security agencies.

The strategic relationship, he said, has become necessary to arrive at a mutual understanding to reduce attacks on journalists by security agents.

To him, security agencies should establish guidelines and orientate their operatives on respect for the rights of journalists, and how to engage with them appropriately. Cases of attacks on journalists and media organisations, he stated, should be promptly categorised and followed with remedial actions.

He also suggested that there should be advocacy for the abolition of criminal defamation and other restrictive laws from the Nigerian body of law. The government, he further argued, should ensure that state and non-state actors who attack journalists are made to face the law.

“There should also be advocacy to ensure that the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) performs its oversight functions within the ambit of the law. Legislative and judicial options must be pursued to ensure that NBC discharges its important duties without bias,” he said.

Similarly, the Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Edeatan Ojo, faulted impunity in the system, which allows attacks on media practitioners to go unpunished. He disclosed that between May 2023 and April 2024, the organisation recorded at least 45 attacks on journalists and media houses.

Out of the 45 cases of attacks documented by MRA, Ojo said that law enforcement and security agencies were responsible for 62 per cent of all attacks, while hoodlums and thugs perpetrated 16 per cent of the attacks, with unidentified persons such as kidnappers, armed individuals, being responsible for 15 per cent of the attacks.

Typically, he noted that there is no instance where any of the perpetrators has been arrested, prosecuted, or held accountable, a development, which ensures that the impunity continues to thrive.

Calling for concerted efforts to advocate the safety of journalists and collaboration among civil society organisations, he declared: “It seems to us therefore that, in the light of this situation, we need to redouble our efforts and collaborate more in defence of media freedom and the safety of journalists.

“Part of our strategy going forward would be to foster such collaboration and solidarity among media professionals and civil society organisations between the media sector and civil society.

“We believe that there is a need for specific legislation to protect journalists and the media practitioners consistent with the requirements of relevant regional and international instruments. We will also be directing our efforts towards this objective in the coming months and years.”

On his part, Arogundade linked several attacks on journalists to state actors. According to him, data obtained by IPC’s Centre for the Safety and Protection of Journalists (I-CSPJ), showed that no fewer than 33 cases of attacks involving 44 journalists and six media outlets were reported and documented.

He revealed that media stakeholders are now working on institutional and legislative frameworks that would expand the frontiers of press freedom, particularly a national policy on the safety of journalists and press freedom.

MRA Communications Officer, Idowu Adewale, believes that the Cybercrimes Act is being misused to intimidate and harass journalists. He said: “We are particularly disturbed by the upsurge in this deplorable police practice under the administration of Tinubu, a man who owns multiple media organisations, and built his political career on a history of democratic struggle.”

Adewale also advised the president to instruct the police to desist from misusing the Cybercrimes Act to suppress journalistic freedom and to harass or intimidate journalists and their media platforms. He insisted that “a free and independent press is essential to the effective functioning of any democratic system of governance.”

However, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris expectedly defended his government.

He insisted that no journalist has been incarcerated under the Tinubu administration.