Growing attacks, harassment of journalists

NIGERIA is increasingly regarded as one of West Africa’s most dangerous environments for journalists. That is an unenviable distinction for a country that claims to practise democracy.

In its 2025 Journalism and Civic Space Status Report, the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism documented 245 incidents of harassment, intimidation, arrests, assaults and other violations affecting journalists and civic freedoms during the year. This is unacceptable and must stop.

The attacks are not just statistics. They have a human face.

In August, police officers and members of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria allegedly attacked the Editor of Pinnacle Daily, Sunday Ogwu, in Lugbe, Abuja. They allegedly assaulted him with an electric cable and destroyed his mobile phone.

The broadcast media has also continued to contend with the National Broadcasting Commission, which frequently subjects broadcasters to threats and fines over alleged breaches of various provisions, including the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.

On September 3, Ugonma Ogbu, a reporter with African Angle, was allegedly harassed, intimidated and detained while reporting on the grassroots healthcare system in Iji-Nike, Enugu State.

The pattern is hardly new. In 2024, the police summarily detained Madu Onuorah, publisher and editor-in-chief of Global Upfront, in the same state.

Nigeria’s position on the global press-freedom table is equally troubling. In the 2026 World Press Freedom Index, the country ranked 112th out of 180 countries, placing it among those classified in the “difficult” category for press freedom.

And the danger is not unique to Nigeria. Globally, journalists continue to pay a frightening price for doing their jobs. In 2025, the International Federation of Journalists reported that 128 journalists were killed worldwide.

The IFJ said it had recorded 3,173 journalist deaths globally since 1990, when it began its annual Killed List. That is a grim indictment of the risks confronting those who gather and disseminate information.

The worsening pattern of harassment, intimidation, prosecution and killing of journalists has rightly attracted the condemnation of the Nigerian Guild of Editors.

In a communiqué issued after its recent Standing Committee meeting in Kano, the NGE condemned the “increasing violations of press freedom and the harassment, intimidation and prosecution of journalists by security agencies through the use of cybercrime legislation and other laws that have the potential to undermine legitimate journalistic practice.”

The guild had raised a similar alarm in 2024 over the incessant arrest and detention of journalists in Nigeria. It correctly pointed out that the cybersecurity law was enacted to combat cybercrime, not to persecute journalists performing their legitimate duties.

Indeed, harassing journalists is not a demonstration of strength. It is, more often than not, a sign of insecurity and institutional weakness. A citizen, public official or institution confident that it has nothing to hide should have little reason to fear scrutiny by the press.

That, however, does not give journalists a licence to abandon professional standards.

The media must remain free to decide what to publish and what not to publish. But that freedom carries responsibilities. Journalism must be factual, fair, objective, professional and ethical. The press must hold power to account without abandoning accuracy, balance and basic professional discipline.

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There is also an important distinction that must not be lost in the expanding online space. Many people now present themselves as journalists without necessarily being journalists.

Bloggers, influencers, skit-makers, commentators and social-media personalities have important roles in the information ecosystem, but they should not automatically be conflated with professional journalists working under established editorial and ethical standards.

Still, press freedom cannot be left at the mercy of the police or security agencies. It is the courts that should interpret the law and determine guilt or innocence, not law-enforcement officers acting as judge and jury.

More fundamentally, political leaders must accept that accountability is an essential price of public office. A free press is not an inconvenience to democracy; it is one of its principal safeguards.

The experience of Ghana is instructive. Former President John Kufuor championed and signed the historic repeal of the Criminal Libel and Seditious Laws in August 2001, in a move aimed at expanding free speech and protecting media freedom. That is the direction democratic societies should take.

Unfortunately, civil society groups, including the Ghana Journalists Association, and some political actors have accused the current Ghanaian administration of a subtle return to a culture of silence.

They have challenged provisions of the Electronic Communications Act and the Cybersecurity (Amendment) Act, arguing that modern digital provisions criminalising false or misleading information online could amount to an indirect revival of the old criminal-libel era.

Nigeria must be careful not to travel down that road.

Media antagonists should remember that press freedom is not a privilege invented by journalists for their own convenience. Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, as well as Sections 22 and 39(1) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution protect freedom of expression and the rights of journalists to perform their duties without molestation.

There is also a striking irony in the conduct of many media antagonists. The same people who attack journalists when unfavourable stories are published often run to the same media when the tide turns against them.

That hypocrisy should end.

Those who believe they have been unfairly treated by the media have legitimate avenues for redress. Rather than resorting to threats, assault, arrest or intimidation, aggrieved individuals and organisations should approach the National Media Complaints Commission, also known as the National Ombudsman, to lodge their complaints for adjudication.

The answer to bad journalism cannot be the suppression of journalism. The answer is better journalism, professional accountability and lawful redress.

As the Nigerian Guild of Editors rightly advised, governments at all levels and members of the public must uphold and respect freedom of the press as a fundamental pillar of democracy and good governance.

A democracy that cannot tolerate scrutiny will eventually have little left to scrutinise. Nigeria must therefore resist every attempt, whether by security agencies, politicians, regulators or private interests, to turn the press into a frightened and compliant institution.

The watchdog must be allowed to bark, even when those being watched find the noise uncomfortable.