As part of activities to commemorate the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists (IDEI), Safer-Media Initiative shared findings of a research on the state of media independence in Nigeria, stressed the importance of media freedom and fighting impunity.
The SMI research finding shows that at least 4 out of 10 journalists were attacked, harassed or unlawfully detained more than once between 2017 and 2022. According to the report, security agents were responsible for 48% of harassment and attack meted on journalists, while politicians and their supporters were responsible for 23%. Police tops the detention of journalists (28%) followed by the (DSS 12%) The findings further indicated that 52% of respondents have been pressured by government, corporate agencies or political interest to shape report shared with the public to align with their interest. It added that access to public information through FOI Act is poor as only 32% of respondents have accessed public information using FOI requests. 63.16% out of the number of respondents who have made FOI request say the response was not timely.
The report remarked that such development undermines the use of information for public good.
The SMI’s Executive Director/CEO, Peter Iorter explained that the general objective of the research work was to ascertain the state of media independence in Nigeria with the FCT-Abuja as the study sample; to specifically, determine the degree to which journalists are harassed, ascertain the main actors responsible for the attack and harassment meted on journalist, establish the level of government or political powers interference in journalists work, gauge the implementation and use of the Freedom of Information Act by journalists and establish the percentage of journalists who access public information using the FOI Act.