Nigeria Fails Again

By Chris Ogbondah
Monday, December 01, 2003

The National Assembly should introduce an anti-press censorship act, which explicitly provides against press censorship, government interference in the media and intimidation and harassment of journalists.

In its second World press Freedom ranking published last October, the Paris-based, Reporters With-out Borders, Nigeria was 103rd among 166 nations rated on how they respect freedom of the press. Compared to last year's report that put Nigeria at number 49 out of 139 countries, the 2003 ranking shows that the respect for press freedom in the country has undergone a progressive deterioration.

Nigeria's poor ranking arises from two factors. One is the reluctance of the present administration, and in particular the National Assembly to introduce laws to enhance press freedom and freedom of (political) expression. The other factor is the seemingly enduring attempts by security officers to cow the press, and to suppress political expression. A few examples would help to contextualise the latter.

On August 30 this year, a Daily Independent photo-journalist, Akintunde Akinleye, was assaulted by overzealous koboko-wielding security officers while covering a public event that the vice-president attended. On July 30, this year, Femi Komolafe, labour editor of Vanguard and Ola Awoniyi, chief correspondent of the French News Agency, Agence France Press, AFP, were brutalised and arrested by police officers, while covering a mass protest over the hike in prices of petroleum products. On the following day, Rotimi Ajayi, senior political correspondent of Vanguard and George Oshodi, photo-journalist with the Associated Press were ruffled while covering the mass protest. Oshodi's camera was smashed by the police. The Freedom of Information/Human Rights Bureau of the Nigerian Union of Journalists say there are 81 documented cases of brutalising of journalists by security officers across the country.

The state has also made attempts to suppress political expression. For example, on December 3, 2002,officials of the SSS briefly detained Tajudeen Abduraman, a political critic as he tried to leave the Murtala Muhammed Airport for London. Three days later, SSS officials detained Theoma Onbibi, the executive director of Alliances for Africa, a regional human rights organisation. In the same month, the SSS seized Kayode Fayemi's passport at the international airport. On January 11, 2003 SSS officials at the international airport briefly seized Odia Ofeimun's passport when the writer arrived from Caracas, Venezuela.

The frequent killings of citizens by members of the Nigeria police-sometimes over N20- may not also have helped Nigeria's ranking.

The Reporters Without Borders will soon begin to prepare its world press freedom ranking for 2004. I have suggestions on what Nigeria should do to improve its ranking. The National Assembly should take speedy action to enact the Freedom of Information Act, a law that will guarantee journalists and the public access to government-held information. The National Assembly should introduce an anti-press censorship act, which explicitly provides against press censorship, government interference in the media and intimidation and harassment of journalists. The law should provide for the protection of political critics, journalists and editorial independence further, it should emphatically provide that the use of extra-judicial measures such as arbitrary detention of political critics, brutalising and harassment of journalists and seizure of reporter's news gathering equipment by security offices is a crime.

The enactment of an anti-censorship act has become necessary. It is not provided for in the 1999 Constitution. Even though the press has become relatively freer since the commencement of democratic governance in May 1999, the intimidation and harassment of journalists and political critics seem to endure. Many African countries once ruled by military dictatorships-like Nigeria-have introduced legislative reforms that provide against press censorship and the use of extra-legal measures and arbitrary actions against the press and political critics.

Ghana, for example, has provided for the law in Article 62 of its constitution. Section 4 of the Article states: "Editors of newspapers and other institutions of the mass media shall not be subject to control or interference by Government, nor shall they be penalised or harassed for their editorial opinions and views, or the content of their publications." The enactment of this type of law helps to explain why Ghana is ranked better than Nigeria-48th on the2003 World Press Freedom scale.

Chris W. Ogbondah, Ph. D., is a professor of journalism at the University of Northern Iowa, USA, and author of the newly-published book, State-Media Relations in Nigeria, 1993-1998. Human Rights and Democratic Development.