Last Tuesday, July 13, 2021, should be marked as a momentous day in the nation’s history. It was the day in which the Nigerian press stood up in unity to express strong opposition to bills designed and introduced in the National Assembly to radically alter the Nigerian Press Council Act and the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Act. Angered by the determination of lawmakers to debate the bills, newspapers across the country published on Tuesday last week robust and unassailable editorials in which they argued why press freedom should be defended and sustained in Nigeria.
In its vigorous editorial titled “No to anti-media bills”, The Sun wrote persuasively: “The toxic media bills seek to criminalise journalism business and practice despite legion of laws in the country with enough provisions and avenues for legal redress whenever the press errs…We believe that the bills smirk of an attempt to unduly suffocate the operations of the media business in total disregard of the provisions of the Companies and Allied Matters Act. Apart from being unconstitutional, the proposed bills run against the principle and tenets of the rule of law.”
It is bizarre that elected legislators should seek to suppress press freedom. By doing that, they are attempting to quash the public’s right to know. The introduction of the bills in the National Assembly has exposed the contempt with which our lawmakers hold the press as an important institution in our society.
The sole purpose of the bills was to marginalise the practice of journalism, something that is vain and antithetical to the basic principles of democracy. The proposed laws would make you wonder whether Nigeria is a democracy or a despotic state. It is only in a dictatorship that the press is denied the right to report freely. It is odd that these anti-media laws were proposed in a country that celebrated the return to democracy in May 1999. That was more than 21 years ago. Is Nigeria retrogressing or making progress?
Press freedom has been defined as the right of the press to hold governments to account. It also includes the right of citizens to be informed by the media on public interest matters so citizens can perform their role in society. Professor Katrin Voltmer argued in a publication in 2010 that, if citizens are ill-informed about political matters, if citizens do not make efforts to express their views, if civil society detests political representatives and have little regard for democratic values, the future of democracy would be endangered.
Why should we be concerned about the proposed restraints on freedom of the press in Nigeria? We should be alarmed by this attempt to muzzle the press because a free press is generally regarded as an emblem of a free society. Press freedom and freedom of expression are the trademarks of democracy but they are also viewed as the benchmarks for measuring the political health of a country. Press freedom is important because the press is a major institution that scrutinises government to prevent abuses of power.
Press freedom was recognised and enshrined in the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 of the Declaration states that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression, including the right to hold opinions without interference and to strive for, obtain and communicate information and ideas through any media without constraints.
In Nigeria, there have been rampant abuses of journalists who were either attacked on the job or arrested and detained by security agents who feel they have the divine right to determine what journalists can or cannot report. It is in this environment that claims made by government officials that Nigeria respects freedom of the press and free speech by citizens are ridiculed at international events.
In various ways, a Nigerian press that is restricted by legislation or endangered by politicians and their bizarre views is not a genuinely free press. It is a press in chains. A press that is forced to abandon its public interest obligation does not contribute to the growth of democracy. When journalists are restrained from performing their roles, they fail to serve as watchdogs of their society.
In the battle for press freedom in Nigeria, there must be no compromises. Press freedom must be respected and upheld. UNESCO’s yearly commemoration of World Press Freedom Day is a reminder to all countries of the importance of press freedom to social, economic, political, and cultural development. Although many countries have constitutional provisions for press freedom and free speech, this does not always guarantee that these rights will be respected in practice.
As evidence that press freedom abuse in Nigeria is of international concern, the country was ranked 120 out of 180 countries in the 2019 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. Two years later in 2021, Nigeria maintained the same ranking. These results are not morally uplifting. They call for an improvement in press freedom.
National Assembly legislators should not devote valuable time to discuss proposed obnoxious laws that seek to limit press freedom. Instead, they must explore avenues to promote respect for the press. The interconnections between press freedom, democracy, and socio-economic development of every society have been documented. Professor of Anthropology at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, Francis B. Nyamnjoh, argues that democratisation and socio-economic development of Africa cannot take place in an empty space. He made the important point that the press is an active contributor to the climate of democracy in Africa.
Nigerian journalists cannot uphold their professional obligations, if they are unable to operate in an environment in which they are free to report news. The bills proposed in the National Assembly to limit press freedom constitute an impediment to national development. Media organisations must be commended for standing up last week in opposition to the vexatious anti-media laws. Journalists and editors must be prepared to challenge attempts by the legislature and/or the executive to limit their constitutional rights and freedom to report news.
We must remember John Stuart Mill, the 19th century utilitarian philosopher, an unapologetic libertarian, who campaigned energetically for free speech during his lifetime. He contended impressively that if a society silenced an opinion, it could also suppress the truth. An inaccurate view, he reasoned, could contain some elements of truth vital for uncovering the whole truth. Mill advocated for an “open marketplace of ideas” because he believed that it was the right space where the “weak and the strong,” men and women, “minorities and majorities” should freely express themselves in their search for the truth.
As democracy spreads across the world, as citizens adopt modern technologies to access news and vital public information, it is mindless for National Assembly lawmakers to devise ways and laws to shrink press freedom that is fundamental to the development of democracy and a culture of accountability and transparency in government. Nigeria must join the rest of the world to celebrate the growth of democracy, and to empower the press.