It is good that the Nigerian Press Organisation (NPO), comprising the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), has challenged the House of Representatives on the bill seeking to amend the Nigerian Press Council Act.
The intended law is a “Bill for an Act to Amend the Nigerian Press Council Act, CAP N128, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, to remove bottlenecks affecting its performance and make the council in tune with current realities in regulating the press and for related matters (HB 330).”
It seeks to regulate the print media and related media houses, impose sanctions on perceived areas of infringement, including fines and terms of imprisonment against journalists and media houses. Several media organisations and groups have rightly criticised various clauses in the bill, arguing that they have the tendency of discouraging freedom of speech and press in the country.
The move by the NPO is commendable. Though the sponsor of the bill, Olusegun Odebunmi, has announced his intention to withdraw it for further consultation, it is good that he and his colleagues were not allowed to have their way.
Many factors work against the legislation. It has been a subject of litigation since 1999 and is currently at the Supreme Court; 17 of the 39 clauses contained in the bill have already been ruled unconstitutional by other courts. It is the Federal Government, out of dissatisfaction with rulings at the lower courts, that took it to the Supreme Court. Government cannot, therefore, be a judge in its own case.
Democracy is about rule of law and separation of powers among the principal arms of the government – the executive, legislature and judiciary. Each is bound to respect the other. For any arm of the National Assembly (NASS) to even give thought to a matter before the Supreme Court is a slight on the judiciary and a subtle invitation to anarchy. Lawmakers cannot afford to act as law-breakers.
Besides, there are clauses in the bill that are likely to discourage freedom of speech and press in the country. Left unchallenged, these sections will erode media independence. For instance, the penalties for some offences, including a fine of N5 million or three years’ imprisonment, are uncalled for.
Sections 33 (3) and (4) of the proposed amendment, which do not give room for retraction or apology where fake news is mistakenly published but recommend blanket sanction of up to N10 million or closure for a period of one year or both, are equally draconian. In like manner, a section of the bill, which provides that a journalist could be held liable for the offence committed by his or her organisation and can be made to pay a fine of N250,000, is anachronistic, to put it mildly.
What we have before us in the name of the amendment bill are subtle ways of holding down the media. We may not readily know where the push behind the bill is coming from. But it can be reasoned that the government or its cheer men are at work. When governments lose focus, they seek to create scapegoats and divert attention. The press is often a major victim of such misplaced aggression.
The role of the press in national development and ensuring stable polity is well established over the ages. We may not bother recapping the sacrifices made by the press and practitioners in winning Nigeria’s independence from Britain and in attaining the present democracy in the land. The Nigerian press has come a long way in fostering change in the society and nation-building through its traditional functions of informing, educating and entertaining the people.
As a principle, the media holds power to account, by acting as the public watchdog overseeing the activities of the government and its institutions. Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, was right in his iconic remarks that “The press is the only tocsin of a nation. When it is completely silenced… all means of a general efforts are taken away.” To stress the points, he added, “The only security of all is in a free press.”
To achieve this, the press must enjoy complete independence from government. Freedom of the press in this sense, is seen primarily as freedom from restriction, which the obnoxious bill in the House of Representatives intends to institute.
A free press gives the people a voice in governance and acts as check on the excesses of government. A system without robust press is akin to dictatorship.
We agree with the profound observations of accomplished media writer, J. Curran, that, “Once the media becomes subject to public regulation, it will lose its bite as a watchdog and may even be transformed into a snarling Rottweiler in the service of the state”.
The role of the media in ensuring an equitable Nigeria is eloquently stated in Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) as part of the fundamental objective and directive principles of the state policy. Among other responsibilities, the section charges the media with not only the duty to discharge its traditional watchdog function in all aspects of governance but also in guarding and advancing the frontiers of the people’s liberties and freedom. This is a huge role the press has been saddled with and it has not been an easy task.
For the press in Nigeria to accomplish this role, it must be free from manipulation or undue restriction by the state. The cliché that the quality of a nation’s mass media is a reflection of the level of its development is true, at all times. Nigeria cannot afford to recline to the dark days of the military where suppression of the press was the norm. In the event of real or perceived infraction by journalists, the courts are there to make the necessary pronouncements, including award of fines.
Nobody, of course, is holding brief for practitioners on the path of irresponsibility and recklessness. If anything, journalists should always bear in mind the fundamental role of the press in national security. Many countries are known to have been thrown into crises by indiscretions of some media professionals. In this era of citizen journalism, measures should be put in place by various press bodies and organisations to guide the activities of practitioners.
The disciplinary organs of the NPAN, NGE and the NUJ should be alert and ensure that the ethics and conducts regulating media practice in the country are strictly enforced among the members.