By Lanre Arogundade

“Nigeria’s ranking on the Press Freedom Index continues to sit in the red zone, ranking 115 in the 2020 ranking, an improvement on its 2019 ranking but no less solidly red, the colour used to identify countries that earn the badge of ‘bad’” – Adenike Aloba

A reading, digest, and analysis of PTCIJ’s State of Press Freedom Report – Trends and Reflections, makes it understandable why Nigeria belongs to the rank of countries that have earned the badge of “bad” on the press freedom index. But in also revealing the various dangerous dimensions that assaults on the rights of journalists and media independence have assumed, especially the impunity that goes with them, the message that this report passes across is that press freedom violation seems to have become a badge of dishonour, which, rather unfortunately, the perpetrators are not ashamed to don.  

Buffeted on all fronts, the Nigerian media seems to be at a poetic press freedom crossroads – wondering where to turn.

Whereas the proverbial antelope, when confronted by a jury of four comprising the restless hyena, the juggling jaguar, the spotted tiger and the roaring master of the forest – the lion, was said to have been advised to bow its head in fear, do what they direct and follow the way they lead, this 117-page report is, in the final analysis, asking the media to be conscious of the fact that it must fight for its free space to avoid permanently staying at the cross roads and worst still, being perpetually subjugated.

It is, if you like, a reminder that the pen should be mightier than the sword; and a clarion call that we must therefore navigate the channels of survival without abdicating our constitutional obligation to monitor governance and hold government accountable to the people.

The outlines of such channels that will enable the Nigerian media to act independently, stick to professionalism, abide with ethical journalism, and stay afloat run like a current through the six sections of the report, the concise summary of which Dapo Olorunyomi, writing on ‘The Economics of Media Freedom’ provides in section four (Impunity Beyond Politics). Olorunyomi submits that the herculean task should not just entail political, legal, and constitutional reforms, but encompass the economic survival of the media. As he stresses: “A lot of the arguments on how accountability journalism strengthens democracy also explain why making the media economically independent and resilient correlates to the building of an enduring democracy, regimes of freedom, as well as the liberty and fundamental rights of citizens.”

Other contributors to the report raise the linkage between press freedom, development, and democratic consolidation. For example, while referencing Amartya Sen who says that “freedom is development”, Professor Umaru Pate in section one on “Why Press Freedom Matters”, makes a case for the continuous exercise of eternal vigilance and safeguard of freedom of expression “in the form of media freedom and protection of the safety of journalists as strategies for societal freedom from corruption, misrule and total decay that have enveloped Nigeria and arrested its development for many decades.”

Ten reasons as extrapolated from the report can be adduced for these recommendations. These are:

1. There is a global assault on press freedom by governments and state institutions and Nigeria seems to be relishing the fact that it has a strangely large company. In recent times these assaults especially violation of the Internet rights of journalists have been carried out under the guise of fighting fake news or hate speech.

2. The incidents of attacks on journalists and the media in Nigeria remain high going by the facts and figures emanating from the Press Freedom Tracker of PTCIJ as enumerated in detail in the report. Over the two-year period of 2018 to 2020, the following picture of attacks according to regions emerged:

3. The attacks on journalists and the media are multi-dimensional with physical harassment and arrests being the most prevalent:                                                                                                                                                                                                       
4. The perpetrators of the attacks are mostly the government, state institutions, the security agencies, political parties, etc. In other words, it is those who by virtue of the oath of their offices are supposed to protect the constitution and therefore the constitutional obligation imposed on the media to hold government accountable, that are undermining the same constitution by being violently hostile to press freedom. Here is the picture on this from the report:

       

5. Journalists are increasingly exposed to danger while trying to cover crisis situations and bring credible information to the public. “Between July 2019 and January 2020, two journalists were shot dead in Abuja, the country’s capital, while covering protests by the Islamic Movement in Nigeria” reports Godwin Onyeacholem while writing on Climate of Fear: Issues of Press Freedom in Nigeria in section 1.

The report also highlights arson attacks on the media and journalists during the recent #EndSARS protests while   previously we do know that journalists were attacked while covering the 2019 elections and the post-2019 governorship elections in Kogi, Edo and Ondo States. They have also been attacked in the course of covering and reporting the Covid-19 pandemic over which my organisation, the International Press Centre (IPC) has documented not less than 50 incidents.

6. Attempts are being made to use legislations to further restrict press freedom with the introduction of the Hate Speech and Social Media bills in the National Assembly, the Nigerian federal parliament, while existing laws such as the Cybercrime Act, the National Broadcasting Act, etc., are being used to harass the media through arrests and imposition of atrocious fines. The latest is the N3million fine levied against each of AIT, Channels TV and Arise TV for allegedly broadcasting unverified information on the #EndSARS protests even when their reporters were on ground for live coverage. The report indeed identified a number of other laws that continue to serve as barriers to press freedom as follows:

• Printing Presses Regulation Act/Printing Presses Regulation Law
  Section 5, P 12 – Lagos State.
• Section 45(1) of the 1999 Constitution.
• Official Secrets Act/ Classified Matters.
• Obscene Publications Act – Section 4I.

7. A judicial cloak is being put on press freedom violation with journalists and media professionals being targeted under the Anti-Terrorism Act with some of the standout cases, including those of Jones Abiri and Agba Jalingo.

8. Unreported non-physical threats, desperation to survive, internal ownership threats, etc., have led to large scale self-censorship that in some cases limit the ability of media outlets to engage in investigative journalism.

9. The public perception of the media is rather unfavourable from the findings of the report. Here is the disturbing picture as contained in Section 6: Public Perception Of Media And Press Freedom:

Question: What do you think about Nigerian Media?

Question: Is the influence positive or negative in shaping how people understand and react to issues? Choose from a scale of 1-3 (1 being negative influence and 3 being a positive influence)

 

  Question: Do you think the media generally is biased?

• If the answer above is yes, what forms of bias exist in the media?

Question: Do you think the media pushes deliberate agendas and narratives?

Question: Do you think the media should push deliberate agendas and narratives?

10. Efforts at pushing back attacks on press freedom including statements of condemnation, some which are published in section Section 3: Building Hedges Against Impunity (Press Statements on Press Freedom Issues) and litigations have not yielded the desired results.

Conclusion

As indicated earlier, the above are the reasons this report challenges us to study the trends in press freedom violation and engage in proper reflection on what needs to be done to curb the menace.

Gladly, the publication of this report represents a statement of commitment to combat violations of press freedom. The PTCIJ and its partner, Free Press Unlimited should indeed be commended for producing an aesthetically appealing in-depth report that substantially adds to the volume of knowledge on the state of press freedom in Nigeria, West Africa and globally. It is a report that I have no doubt in my mind media and communication scholars, sociologists, political scientists, peace and conflict scholars, criminologists, etc., will find extremely useful.

The report demonstrates that though overwhelming, the situation is not completely helpless as even here in Africa, nay West Africa, we could point to success stories such as in Ghana, where the Constitution expressly provides for press freedom and forbids state interference in the management of the affairs of the public media.

We need to borrow from such best practices while rededicating ourselves to greater collaboration and strengthened partnership to defend press freedom in Nigeria. A major outcome of this presentation therefore should be the development of a road map on how we do this in the period ahead.

The standard of the sub-editing and proof reading of the report is commendable. That is why about the only error I noticed is on page 10, which presents the graphics on ‘Top Three Cities Per Region with High Volume of Attacks’. However, what we have there are mostly names of states, except perhaps what is intended to be presented are ‘Top Three STATES Per Region with High Volume of Attacks’. This should be looked into and corrected accordingly.

All said, I do not hesitate to recommend this report to all press freedom and freedom of expression organisations and activists and all relevant stakeholders.

Lanre Arogundade is Executive Director, International Press Centre (IPC), Lagos, Nigeria. This review was presented at a Webinar session organised by the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ) on November 12, 2020.