SERAP Urges N’Assembly to Uphold Press Freedom

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has told the National Assembly to take steps to uphold press freedom by repealing obnoxious sections of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015.

SERAP said that Sections 24 and 25 of the Act violated all international and regional treaties on human rights to which Nigeria is a party as well as the provisions of Sections 1(3) and 39 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the rights group made the call while presenting a 76-page report on press freedom.

The report is entitled: ‘A Downward Spiral: How Federal and State Authorities are Tightening the Screws on Media Freedom in Nigeria.’

Presenting the report, a veteran journalist, Mr. Richard Akinnola, said that Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution as amended gave the mass media the obligation to hold government at all levels accountable.

Akinnola added that Section 39 of the same Constitution granted the freedom of expression to all Nigerians, noting that this was however, being hindered by obnoxious laws by government.

He said that in the past 15 years, press freedom in Nigeria had been on a downward spiral as journalists and media houses had been facing severe attacks by both the federal, State Governments and public officials.

According to him, among journalists, who have been victims of repression of the press in recent times are four journalists from Leadership Newspapers, detained for refusing to name the source of a story.

Akinola named the journalists as Chinyere Fred-Adebulugbe, Chucks Ohuegebe, Tony Amokeodo and Chibuzor Ukaibe, who were summoned to the police headquarters in Abuja in April 2013.