World Press Freedom Day: Stakeholders Decry Torrential Assaults On Journalists, Demands Govt Live-Up To Safety Responsibility
Stakeholders under media advocacy groups have lamented the torrential attacks on journalists and aggression meted against media organizations in Nigeria.
The stakeholders expressed their views on Friday in Lagos at a hybrid forum under the theme: “The Imperative of Media Freedom for Democratic Governance”, convened by Media Rights Agenda (MRA) and Global Rights: Advocates for Sustainable Justice, in collaboration with the International Press Centre (IPC) and the Centre for Media and Society (CEMESO), on the heels of commemorating the 2024 edition of World Press Freedom Day (WPFD 2024).
The forum which was convened to underscore the vital role that the media play in promoting transparency, accountability, good governance, and democracy, had stakeholders decrying the aggression against media, as they called on the government to live up to its responsibility to ensure the safety and protection of media stakeholders, while making reforms to promote press freedom.
The stakeholders including journalists, lawyers, and editors, among others, emphasized the need for statutory reforms by the Government to create enabling environment for journalists to dispense their duties unhindered.
Speaking to the discourse, Director of International Press Centre (IPC), Mr. Lanre Arogundade decried the resort to attacks on journalists, particularly by people acting with impunity without recourse to modalities provided by law.
He called on the government to rise to the responsibility of ensuring the safety and protection of journalists in line with relevant statutory instruments, such as the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
“It’s been an important discourse because we are looking at the state of our profession, the challenges that journalists face particularly when it comes to attack, and we are looking at what we can do to remediate the situation.
“Through this conversation we have reiterated our call on the government to take the safety and protection of journalists seriously because it is their constitutional responsibility, a responsibility reposed on them by international and regional instruments, like the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights which enjoins all the member states to take necessary measures to ensure the safety of journalists. We are not saying that journalists are peculiar or special specie that should be exceptionally taken care of, but we are saying it is (essential) in the context of the work that we do in providing information,” he said.
Speaking on the significance of the profession, he said, “Almost all governments, whether Federal or State, have Commissioners for Information, Chief Press Secretaries, Special Advisers on Media. Why do they have those functionaries? It is because they recognise the importance of the media, but we are worried that when journalists then ask for Information, they begin to suspect them or when they report certain information they are not happy with, they take extra judicial means to get back at those journalists. We are saying let us be governed by the rule of law, that even when you perceive that a journalist has erred, do not resort to self help, rather report to regulatory bodies, whether government or the ones put together by the industry itself, or in fact go to the court, but don’t begin to turn yourself to the accuser, the prosecutor and the judge in your own case.”
He lamented that the situation has gotten “to the extent where a journalist could be manacled and chained.”
“These are very dangerous dimensions and these are the conversations we have heard today and we are hopeful that coming period we are likely to see some changes,” he said.
He advised journalists, first and foremost, to pay attention to the ethics of the profession with depth of fact checking, while imploring them on the need to take their safety and security very seriously.
“Journalists need to take their health seriously and ensure that they seek relevant help when they are in danger. More importantly, journalists should not keep quiet when they are threatened, or when they are attacked. We need to speak out so that other colleagues can speak for you,” he added.
Executive Director, Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Mr. Edetaen Ojo, said the environment for media practice in terms of safety of journalists and freedom remains very challenging, particularly in the face of attacks against journalists in the Country.
“The statistics of attacks on journalists are really disturbing. What that suggests to me is that we still need to do a lot of works to get all the relevant stakeholders to work towards creating that environment where journalists can do their work much more safely and freely without fear of intimidation and attack. As a Community, I think that’s what we really need to work towards for the near future,” Edetaen said.
He implored journalists to beyond editorial capacities in their line of duties, pay attention to consciously develop capacity in safety and security training.
“A lot of journalists have come into the profession without proper training, not just in terms of the editorial part of their work, but also around safety issues. Many of them do not know how to protect themselves, how to address dangerous situations and so on,” he said.
The MRA chief advised journalists to be aware of the risks and dangers inherent in the profession, “not for it to scare them off, but for them to take steps to mitigate those risks and threats.”
“There are solutions, safety and security awareness training on the basic steps that would keep you safe. It is something every journalist should make effort to build their capacity around,” he said.
Executive Director, Centre for Media and Society (CEMESO), Dr. Akin Akingbulu decried recurrent attacks on journalists, noting the concentration of assaults during the presidential and governorship election.
He noted attacks on journalists have been recorded in all geo-political zones, but more concentrated in the South-West, South-South, and North-Central, while attacks in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Kano State were, according to him, more pronounced.
Akingbulu identified the perpetrators to include state actors such as the Nigeria Police, and non-state actors including political thugs and hoodlums.
“Nigeria journalists cannot maximise their potentials when they are constantly exposed to assault, threat, intimidation, arrest, assassination and other forms of attacks in the line of duty,” he decried.
He noted that “election period remain very dangerous, and in fact the most dangerous of times to practice journalism in Nigeria.”
The CEMESO chief, said it will take “an overall improvement” in Nigerian politics and the general conduct of election to guarantee the right of journalists to safety and security.
Aside from individual attacks on journalists in the line of duty, Akingbulu also decried corporate media attacks in form of invasion, denial of access, fine, bombing and demolition.
He called on Security Agencies in the country to enlighten their men in respect to the right attitude and appropriate engagement with journalists.
He also called for modalities to ensure regulatory bodies such as the National Broadcasting Commision (NBC) carry out their regulatory functions within the ambit of the law, while calling for review of what he described as “terrible laws” impeding press freedom, particularly those enacted by the military government.
He also called on Media stakeholders to “take risk assessment very seriously”, as he submitted on the need for collaboration among media stakeholders.
At the forum, journalists who have fallen victims of assaults shared their traumatic experiences, just as a Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Uzochukwu Israel, of the Department of Psychology, University of Lagos, shared tips on how journalists can keep mentally stable and safe.