(http://fmi.gov.ng/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Labaran-Maku-300x200.jpg) The Information Minister, Mr. Labaran Maku has said that Nigerians have come to accept press freedom as a national characteristic, which could not be stifled even under military dictatorships because of their diversity and the history of assertiveness.
He made the remarks in Abuja during a programme on Channels Television.
Mr. Maku dismissed as untrue, claims that the Federal Government was trampling on press freedom and explained that in a democracy, press freedom was imbibed in the constitution as well as the Freedom of Information Act, which was signed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan.
He said the recent report by the United Nations that Nigerian Press is one of the freest in the world was a vindication of the Federal Government's commitment to upholding press freedom.
"Last week the United Nations said that the Nigerian Press is one of the freest in the world, which means that our freedom is not only comparable continentally but globally and I think that should be a plus for the media and for Nigeria's democracy", he remarked.
The Minister however, said it was unfortunate and regrettable that some journalists lost their lives in terror attacks in some states, but added that it should not have served as yardstick to gauge press freedom in the country, stating that those attacks were not instigated by the government neither were they ignored as the attacks on media houses were investigated and arrests were made while prosecution is ongoing.
According to him, the preponderance of public opinion is that there are excesses in exercising press freedom in Nigeria though not widespread, it was noticeable and mostly borne out of political interference by some owners of the media houses.
"Unfortunately, we have allowed our political biases to infiltrate sometimes the media that we own, and I have been worried about this for a long time.
"You are a journalist, I am a reporter, I know very clearly that if you pick up newspapers in Nigeria today, from the headline, you can know which one is pro-PDP, which one is ACN, which one is APC, which one is CPC. You can read it every day, you don't need to ask anybody and I am worried about these biases that are shown not just on opinion pages but right on the front page including the casting of headlines, you can see very clearly that there are biases. They are political stories fed on the nation, and I think this should not be encouraged", he said.
Mr. Maku further clarified the misconception that press freedom means immunity from arrest and said no citizen is immune from arrest especially if there is reasonable suspicion in the conduct of individual, the security agents are duty-bound to invite such person whose rights and privileges are adequately protected by the constitution.
The Minister therefore, urged the media to always be guided by the ethnics of the profession and insisted that they should be a professional ombudsman to regulate and assess the media in the country to give them liberty from political interference and hold them to account.
Also speaking on the programme, the President, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Mallam Mohammed Garba faulted the recent report by the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) which compared Nigeria to Somalia in terms of press freedom.
"By virtue of my position as President of WAJA and recently, Federation of African Journalists, I want to say that I had the privilege of travelling to quite a number of countries, especially here in Africa and I always emphasize that what we use to accommodate here in terms of content in some of our pages in the newspapers and indeed some of our analysis in the broadcast media cannot be accommodated in quite a number of countries in Africa.
"So I strongly believe that we have gone so far in terms of achieving press freedom and freedom of expression here in Nigeria and I believe that is why we are witnessing quite a number of proliferation of various media organizations both in the print and broadcasting", he said.
He however observed that since 1986, killers of journalists in the country have not been apprehended and brought to book, which he described as a challenge for security agencies to resolve the cases of assassination of journalists in Nigeria.
Mallam Mohammed Garba maintained that in the current democratic dispensation, there had never been a case where a journalist was killed in the course of investigating the government and attributed the recent murder of journalists in the country to terror activities in some states.
"If you look at the number of journalists especially in a situation where it involves government for instance, we are now in a democratic set up, there has never been an instance where probably journalists were killed in the course of either trying to investigate or discharge their social responsibility. The latest one, I want to believe was as a result of the insurgencies which have been taking place in parts of the country", he said.
Via: Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria
Press freedom is always an important thing in a country like Nigeria. But the press tend to abuse whatever right they are given.