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Media
Chief Calls for Review of Nigeria’s Media Laws
Dr. Tonnie Iredia, the Director-General of
the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), has called for an overhaul of
all relevant Nigerian laws that affect
the operation of the media and practice of journalism in Nigeria
to make them more responsive to media rights and freedom as is the case
in developed countries and to make the
Nigerian media more vibrant. “This has become imperative because of the
inadequacy of the provisions of these laws to guarantee press freedom
and a conducive environment for practitioners in the country”.
The director of “Africa’s largest television
network” made the call on August 30, 2007 in Ilorin, the capital of
Kwara State in North-central Nigeria, while delivering his speech as
lead speaker in one of the sessions at the conference of the Nigerian
Bar Association (NBA) tagged Lawyers in the Media Forum. His
presentation was titled “Broadcasting in a developed country:
Challenges to professionalism”.
Dr. Iredia said that criticisms of Nigerian
journalists without a due assessment of existing laws regulating their
profession was unfair because there are existing lacunas in media laws
in Nigeria which put the nation's media in bondage.
He cited Section 22 of the 1999
Constitution which provides that the Nigerian Media has the
responsibility of holding the government accountable but noted that the
same constitution abysmally failed to make specific provision to
guarantee freedom for the journalists. He also noted that
Section 39 (2) of the 1999 Constitution,
which, according to him, looks like a protection for the press "only
protects the owners of the media" and "not the practitioners".
He said: “The 1999 Constitution has
only given duty to Nigerian journalists, it has not protected the
journalists from dangers incidental to carrying on this duty. It has not
removed the timidity and the apprehensions of journalists.
“It has not given the journalists specific protection like the ones we
have in the constitutions of Ghana and Malawi. In these constitutions,
there are specific provisions to the effect that no journalist shall be
harassed or molested, (not to talk of being arrested) on account of any
editorial opinion.
“It is one thing to say the media shall hold the government accountable
to the people, it is another thing to provide for the protection of the
media practitioners against the dangers being faced in their jobs,
especially in country like ours.
“This is a country where military men have shaved the head of a
journalist, Mr. Amakire, with a broken bottle on the grounds that he
dared wrote something “unpalatable” against a military governor on his
birthday.”
“This is a country where journalists are molested, harassed, beaten up
and arrested at will by security operatives.”
He also condemned Section 12 of the NTA Act
as an example of executive encroachment into the press freedom because
it empowers the Minister of Information to issue mandatory directive to
the station.
He asked journalists to adhere to their
duties of maintaining principles of social responsibility and avoid
publications that could generate crisis and tension, while lamenting the
poor remuneration of Nigerian journalists "despite working for 24 hours
in a day and seven days in a week".
He said that there was a glaring influence of
media imperialism in Africa adding that many Africans believe the
foreign media more, even when their presence is not even there.
He proffered a solution to the hostile
operational environment in which journalists work, and recommended that
the broadcasting sector should be separated from the civil service
structure in line with what exists in develop world; the provision of
more equipment for the practitioners; and urged private media owners to
jettison the idea of imposing their will on the practitioners "so that
the concept of stories' balancing can be upheld".
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