Increasing arrest of Journalists and need for caution
The growing threat to journalists and the profession of Journalism in the country is causing grave concern to all who cherish and believe on democracy.
A number of journalists have come under arrest in recent time while many others have been beaten, harassed, intimidated and kidnapped in the course of their work. Some others are incarcerated for their reports for months by agents of Federal and State government agencies.
In the last one year, we specifically observed that on July 23, 2019 a cub reporter, Precious Owolabi, a National Youth Corps (NYSC) member serving with Channels Television in Abuja, was brutally killed while covering a protest organised by members of Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN).
On August 5, 2019, four journalists who were assigned by their medium to cover #RevolutionNow protest in Lagos were molested and arrested.
We also noted that Agba Jalingo, the publisher of CrossRiverWatch, Jones Abiri, the publisher of Bayelsa State based weekly Source Newspapers, the Abuja Bureau Chief of Daily Independent Newspapers, Mr. Tony Ezimakor and Mr. Luka Bimeyat, the Bureau Chief of Vanguard Newspapers Kaduna, were separately arrested for doing their work as journalists.
While Mr. Ezimakor was lucky that the Department of State Security Services (SSS) who arrested him over a story he wrote did not press charges against him, Jalingo, Abiri, Bimeyat were not that lucky.
They were charged with alleged acts of terrorism and treasonable felony over their works. The authorities chose alleged offences that allows the court to keep them in custody for a long period of time.
Just last week, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) raised the alarm over the arrest of Editor of News Digest online Newspapers, Gidado Shuaibu and his Newspaper’s webmaster, Adebowale Adekoya.
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They were arrested last week Wednesday over an investigative story tagged “Inside Kwara factory where Indian hemp smoking is legalized”.
Besides CISLAC, the report of the World human rights watch dogs – the Amnesty International, has condemned the trend of journalists’ arrest and detention in Nigeria, describing it as “deliberate unabated restrictions against freedom of expression in Nigeria as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria”.
Amnesty International report tagged “Endangered Voices and attack on Freedom of Expression in Nigeria” speaks volumes of attacks on journalists and media activists and the failure of government to investigate the violation and bring culprits to account.
Section 22 of the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria provides that the media and journalists should hold the government accountable for its actions and inactions.
Therefore, freedom of press is fundamental to a healthy and stable democracy and arguably the most essential tool of the citizens. It empowers the public by providing the information about governance and the leaders.
We condemn the relentless campaigns targeted at journalists and the media and these must stopped. It is not by discrediting their work as ‘fake news” and arrests that the challenge posed by new media would be successfully addressed.
