Nigeria
The African country Nigeria has been ranked 120 out of 180 in the World Press Freedom Index (WPFI) ranking for 2021, created by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). RSF is one of the world’s leading non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which aims to defend and promote the freedom of information. Nigeria dropped five places from where it ranked in 2020, showcasing the lack of freedom journalists experience in the country and the ongoing violence against media workers.
According to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the world’s largest organization of journalists, radio presenter Titus Badejo was brutally murdered while driving home from a club in June 2021.
“The grave violence against Nigerian journalists and media outlets makes us fear the worst,” said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF’s Africa desk, in an article posted by RSF in October 2020. “It is unacceptable that Nigeria continues, year after year, to be one of the only West African countries where journalists risk their lives when covering major demonstrations.”
The Africa Report, one of the leading news organizations in Africa, says that Nigeria’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) is known for being violent towards citizens and murdering innocent people.
In October 2020, during a peaceful protest for the #EndSARS movement, a social movement led by mostly young people, CNN conducted an investigation and proved that the military killed protesters. At that time, the government denied any casualties during the protest.
RSF reported that ever since the start of the demonstrations, journalists have been physically attacked — either by protestors or police officers. While covering protests in Abuja in January 2020 and July 2019 respectively, journalists Alex Ogbu and Precious Owolabu were killed. The culprits were never identified.
Annually, a report called Freedom in the World (FITW) is published by Freedom House (FH), an American NGO. This report analyzes and rates 210 countries based on the access people have to political rights and civil liberties. In said report, Nigeria scored 47 out of best possible 100 for 2021, and was labeled as “partly free”.
According to RSF, Twitter was suspended in Nigeria in June 2021 after one of the President’s tweets was deleted. The constant media censorship is a violation of rights and a major threat to both journalists and citizens.
As stated by The Africa Report, in October 2020, the government launched a campaign called “National Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speech”, aiming to regulate social media even more, allowing the law to shut down the internet at will. Internet providers who do not comply with this law will either pay a N10 million fine or face three years in prison. As of right now, it only needs one more reading to become the law.
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Tsvetana Ilieva is majoring in Journalism and Mass Communications at the American University in Bulgaria. Her strongest drives are her passion for equality and the desire to end violence against journalists.
