The vibrancy of Nigerian Media, an incontrovertible fact.

[FMINigeria]

 By Ibraheem Al-hassan

                                                                                                                                                                                      (ibrahazal@yahoo.com)

"Without information, we grope in the dark." – Alice Chasan, World Press Review.

The world recently celebrated World Press Freedom Day, precisely on May 11, 2013; Nigeria was not left behind in the celebration.  This is a day proclaimed by the United Nations' General Assembly in 1993 following a recommendation adopted at the twenty sixth session of UNESCO's General Conference in 1991 to celebrate press freedom.

The day was to remember the trial and triumph of those men and women who bring us the news.  It also serves as an occasion to inform citizens, of violation of press freedom.  Another importance of the day is to encourage and develop initiatives in favour of press freedom and to access the state of press freedom worldwide.

Alice Chasan, the editor, World Press Review declared that "Without information, we grope in the dark."  No nation can be truly free when its people lack the tools to choose a leader or assess the government and its policies in the context of the world community.  A free press empowers all the people except those who have something to hide.

She further added that, "It is on record today that in the last ten years, over six hundred Journalists and media workers have been killed across the globe in the course of discharging their legitimate duties.  Journalists have suffered series of humiliations for bringing news and information to the public.

Coming back to Nigeria's situation, similar concerns were raised on the part of media operators, but what is obvious is, if we flashed back to historical antecedence of Nigeria, the rights of press was not acquired on a platter of gold, it was a tug of war.  Even in the military era, there were attempts to silence the press, but such efforts were thwarted.  Therefore, no government in this country would be able to undermine the legitimate activities of the press.

With even our experience during military rule, what becomes incontrovertible is that Nigerian media is free and vibrant at upholding its fundamental responsibilities to the state and people of Nigeria.  Ambassador Terence McCulley, the US Ambassador to Nigeria attested to this, saying that "Nigerians have made their marks on the social media sphere, and it is now time to harness the forum in holding elected leaders accountable to ensure good governance and economic growth."  He cited example in the 2011 elections where candidates of political parties employed the media in campaigning via Twitter and face book to Nigerians on why they should be given votes.

The United Nations' Residenct Coordinator, Mr. Daouda Taure also affirmed the fact that Nigeria media is one of the freest in the world, in spite of some incidences of impunity and attacks on press men.

Reacting to the global rating and the misconception of what is happening in Nigeria, the Minister of Information; Mr. Labara Maku refuted the indices used in placing the country as second on global scale of countries with severe cases of violation of rights of Journalists.  The Minister went on to say that the arrest of journalists working with Leadership newspaper is an isolated case; as such it should not be used as overall measure for media abuse in the country.

The Minister further explained that the scenario in the country, guaranteed freedom of the press; that is why for the first time, President Goodluck Jonathan assented to the Freedom of Information Act (FoI Act) in 2011.  He therefore, cautions that "We must not take individual cases to mean that press freedom is under assault; the reality of press freedom is that it is embedded in our law, but that law also warrants the media to watch it."

In other words, press freedom does not mean that as journalists we are immune to being invited by the police if they feel something has happened that we needed to explain.  The Minister maintained that nobody is immune to arrest for questioning, it could be soldier, politician or civil servant, in as much rule of law is observed.

So I think honestly we need to distinguish between the freedom we have and the normal processes of law, I can say that in this continent today there is no media that are as robust and free as Nigeria's.

Ibraheem Al-hassan writes from the National Press Centre, Federal Ministry of Information, Abuja.

Via: Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria

[Folami David]

Nigerian media is very powerful especially when it comes to spreading false rumours all around the country. I totally agree with this.