The harassment and intimidation of journalists in Nigeria is fostering a “climate of impunity”, Media Rights Agenda (MRA), a civil society organisation (CSO), has asserted.
The group, in a statement on Monday, warned that the increasing incidents of “arbitrary” arrests and other forms of attacks on media professionals by security agencies posed a threat to press freedom and democracy in the country.
The CSO highlighted the case of three journalists from Alimosho Today, a community news outlet in Lagos, who had been asked to report to the office of the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 2 Command, on Tuesday, August 27, 2024.
The journalists—Wisdom Okezie, a former reporter; Ayomide Eweje, the Managing Editor; and Oluwamodupe Akinola, the publisher—were invited for questioning over “a matter reported to the Assistant Inspector-General of Police”.
MRA disclosed that the summons were issued through separate letters dated August 22, 2024, signed by Martin Nwogoh, Deputy Commissioner of Police, on behalf of the AIG at the Zone 2 headquarters.
The letters, MRA said, did not reveal the identity of the complainant or the nature of the information being sought from the journalists.
Reacting to the development, Obioma Okonkwo, head of the legal department at MRA, criticised the police for “becoming a tool in the hands of public officials and powerful individuals seeking to silence journalists”.
Said she: “It appears that the police now view journalism as a crime, allowing anyone displeased by a media report to use the force to pursue journalists with uncommon zeal, even as real criminals often go unchallenged”.
She said that the police allegedly used complaints about media reports as a pretext to arrest, detain, or charge journalists to court, without making any effort to verify the accuracy of the stories.
She called on Inspector-General of Police Kayode Egbetokun, to take immediate action to curb the misuse of power against journalists.
She noted that the failure to address this issue endangered press freedom and the public’s right to information.
