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Media Group Urges Journalist To Kick Against Moves By Buhari’s Government To Gag The Press

In a statement on Thursday, Nigeria’s pioneer media rights group, Journalists for Democratic Rights (JODER, established in 1996) said journalists in Nigeria are used to anti-media laws and that such have always been historically defied by journalists.

Media practitioners in the country have been urged to get ready to defy any anti-press laws the Nigerian government may enact.

 

In a statement on Thursday, Nigeria’s pioneer media rights group, Journalists for Democratic Rights (JODER, established in 1996) said journalists in Nigeria are used to anti-media laws and that such have always been historically defied by journalists.

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JODER said the proposed bill to regulate the media will create a one dimensional society where the government will only listen to itself, leaving the citizens to resort to unconventional means to express themselves. 

 

He described the suppression of public opinion as a violent assault on the people.

 

In a statement signed by the group’s Executive Director, Mr Adewale Adeoye, JODER urged Nigerians to continue to press hard against the plot by the Muhammadu Buhari Presidency to muzzle the press.

 

“If we cannot stop the draconian laws, the tradition has always been to defy them. Rebellion against unjust laws is the duty of journalists,” Adeoye said.

 

The group said the Nigerian Press Council Act and the National Broadcasting Commission Act violate the principles of democracy, one of which is free speech without which Nigerian leaders cannot lay claim to representing the people that elected them.

 

“Infringement on the right of expression is corruption of the worst variant. It is not only against the media, it is against the people. It is against the business and political class. It is against the masses. It is against expectations of the local and international community. It takes away the freedom of the electorate to express themselves and their right to question those elected to represent them,” he added.

 

The group said Nigeria is witnessing the emergence of dictatorship and a clear descent into anarchy.

 

“The proposed bill empowers the NPC to suspend a journalist, meaning that the NPC is to keep a ledger on the stories published by the media and employ the sledge hammer when interests of public officers are perceived to be threatened whereas most of the time, the interests of the people and public officials, many of whom are corrupt, are not the same.

 

“Since 1859, when the first newspaper was published in Nigeria, journalists have fought hard and courageously to defeat anti-media laws. On this course, many have been either killed or disappeared. At each juncture, the media have always won the battles. When the military came up with Decree 4 and others to muzzle the press, the response was to defy the draconian laws. It is almost certain that history is about to repeat itself,” JODER said.

 

The group added that the proposed bill is an attempt to reverse the gains of democracy since 1999 and to bring back a culture of anomie and siege on the society, adding that it negates Article 19 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and a reversal of the 1991 Windhoek Declaration by African journalists.

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Journalism