NIGERIA: Nigeria Media freedom constrained as government battles Islamist insurgents

Record ID: 236670

  • Title: NIGERIA: Nigeria Media freedom constrained as government battles Islamist insurgents
  • Date: 2nd May 2014
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) FOLORUNSHO BOLANLE, CHAIRMAN, NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES DISTRIBUTORS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA, SAYING: "If you don't go there to film, to get that information, I don't know how the public will feel about that, the public will feel that it is too bad and it will show that that profession that you are not well trained for it because if you are well trained for it, no matter how hard it is..... for example during the time of civil war, we still have the cassettes up till now, so if by then those journalists as at that time, they didn't go extremely hard to get that information, we of nowadays who were born after that civil war, we won't now be getting that information. So we must know as a journalist, no matter how hard that information is, we must get that information because of the general public." VARIOUS OF MAN ARRANGING NEWSPAPERS
  • Embargoed: 17th May 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Information,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA3Y415T6G2WXV50PS4Y6VCWUH2
  • Story Text: As the world prepares to mark the World Press Freedom day on Saturday, March 03, Nigerian journalists say things are getting more difficult for the media as radical Islamist movement, Boko Haram intensifies attacks in the north of the country.
    According to Tunde Osho, the Head of Output at Television Continental News (TVCNEWS), a broadcasting firm in Nigeria's commercial city of Lagos, the government routinely denies journalists access to areas that are under Boko Haram control.

    "Sometimes something happens and the military will block off the whole area, media can't get in, meanwhile the story is festering and it's getting even worse but you can't get there to cover the initial story but more stories are happening. If the government will co-operate, and I'm not just talking about the administrative government, I'm talking of the military, the customs, the immigration, even in the ports you know, even the agents, if they would co-operate with media, there is a whole lot that we can do together to solve some of these problems," says Osho.
    Recently, it took about a week for visuals of a school where a group of girls were abducted by the militants to emerge.
    On May 1st, a suspected bomb exploded on the outskirts of the Nigeria's capital Abuja killing at least 15 people.
    The explosion hit the suburb of Nyanya, close to the site of a morning rush hour bomb attack at a bus station last month that killed at least 75 people.
    The April 14 attack was claimed by Boko Haram which is waging an insurgency against President Goodluck Jonathan's government.
    Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, has a relatively free press by the standards of the region, although journalists are sometimes targeted and harassed by security forces.
    Reporters are often routinely put under surveillance by Nigeria's secret service.
    Hillary Nnoruka, a Bulletin Editor with TVC News, says journalists covering stories in the north are also constantly at risk from threats by Boko Haram.
    In 2012, suicide bombers attacked the offices of a media house in Abuja and Kaduna killing at least four people.

    "We have a reporter of ours, even up till now we still protect his identity, he is in Borno state. We protect his identity because he's been working... he works in a hostile environment like you know, Borno state in northern Nigeria, and the fact is that even he doesn't really know who to trust, to get information from because he might be talking to someone who is aligned to the Boko Haram sect," explained Nnoruka.
    Nigeria has enshrined press freedom into law but as reporter Christy Cole Popoola explains, the media still faces challenges accessing information particularly from government officials.

    "Journalism in Nigeria still struggles to be free because now while in theory we have freedom, we are supposed to have access to information, to government information, to footages, to files, to records that will make the government accountable and help you practice journalism as accurately as you possibly can. In theory you are supposed to have freedom but in practice you would have to deal with bureaucracy, you have to write series of letters just to get records that would help your journalism, your investigation," said Popoola.
    Dozens of newspapers and magazines are published in Nigeria. Folorunsho Bolanle, Chairman, Newspapers and Magazines Distributors Association of Nigeria says having a free and vibrant media is imperative for the country's development.

    "If you don't go there to film, to get that information, I don't know how the public will feel about that, the public will feel that it is too bad and it will show that that profession that you are not well trained for it because if you are well trained for it, no matter how hard it is ... for example during the time of civil war, we still have the cassettes up till now, so if by then those journalists as at that time, they didn't go extremely hard to get that information, we of nowadays who were born after that civil war, we won't now be getting that information. So we must know as a journalist, no matter how hard that information is, we must get that information because of the general public," said Bolanle Nigeria is ranked 115 in the Reporters Without Borders 2013 press freedom index, which uses criteria such as violence against journalists and legislation.
    Eritrea, the last on the list of 179 is considered the worst country for press freedom, while Finland is considered the country that most respects media freedom.
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