The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has identified security operatives, particularly the police, military, and intelligence services, as the worst enemies of the media in Nigeria.
Citing its annual state of media freedom report for the year, MRA stated that these security agencies were responsible for the highest number of attacks against journalists in 2024.
The organization, in a statement made available to our reporter in Taraba State on Tuesday, noted that “out of a total of 64 attacks against journalists that it recorded in 2022, law enforcement and security agencies were responsible for 29 of them, representing approximately 45 percent of the attacks; while they were responsible for 34 out of the 77 attacks against journalists documented in 2023, representing approximately 44 percent.”
Signed by its Programme Officer, Mr. John Gbadamosi, the statement said the situation worsened significantly in 2024, as law enforcement and security agencies were responsible for 45 out of the total 69 attacks against journalists documented by MRA between January 1 and October 31, 2024, representing approximately 65 percent.
“It is ironic that the institutions tasked with upholding the rule of law as well as ensuring the safety and security of citizens, including journalists, have instead become the instruments of oppression against the media.
“It is worse still that the pervasive culture of impunity, which has ensured a lack of accountability for past attacks, has now emboldened these perpetrators to the extent that we are now seeing them at their most horrendous,” MRA said.
The report, according to him, documented in detail 21 cases of assault and battery against journalists during the first 10 months of the year, as well as:
17 cases of arbitrary arrests and detention, three cases of raids on homes/offices of journalists, eight cases of threats to life, two cases of harassment, six cases of abductions/kidnapping, five instances where journalists were obstructed from performing their duties, one journalist killed, and six other cases of attacks.
Besides law enforcement and security agencies, other perpetrators of attacks against journalists documented in the report include:
Other government officials, responsible for 4 of the attacks, the courts, responsible for two violations of journalists’ rights, thugs and hoodlums, responsible for seven of the attacks, 4 unknown gunmen, and six other unknown persons.
Identifying a positive development during the year, Gbadamosi observed: “In recent years, crippling fines imposed by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) on broadcast stations for alleged violations of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code have been a recurring feature in the threat landscape.
“But 2024 recorded zero fines imposed on broadcast stations by the NBC, apparently as a result of court judgments secured by MRA in May 2023 and January 2024, forbidding the NBC from further imposing such fines on broadcasters. We commend the NBC for complying with the courts’ orders.”
The year also witnessed another positive development with the opening of a court-mandated inquiry into the death of Mr. Pelumi Onifade, a 20-year-old reporter with Gboah TV. Onifade was reportedly arrested by policemen attached to a Lagos State task force while covering the #EndSARS protests in 2020, and his body was later found at a mortuary in Ikorodu, Lagos, where it had been deposited.
Describing this as unprecedented and a significant step toward accountability and justice in cases involving attacks on journalists in Nigeria, Gbadamosi said MRA is very proud to have instituted the wrongful death suit against the Police and the Lagos State Government, which resulted in the judgment of a Federal High Court in Lagos directing an investigation into the late journalist’s death.
“Despite these significant positive developments in the course of the year, the threat environment for journalism and media practice in Nigeria remains extremely concerning, and it is imperative that urgent measures are taken to protect journalists and hold perpetrators of attacks against them accountable.
“Such measures should include strengthening Nigeria’s legal framework to better protect journalists and ensuring that all attacks against journalists are speedily investigated, and the perpetrators prosecuted and punished,” he suggested.
MRA identifies Nigerian security agencies as biggest threat to media freedoms