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MRA Calls For the Release of Arrested
Prodemocracy Activists
The Media Rights Agenda unequivocally condemns the
arrest and detention over the past week of Nigerian pro-democracy
activists whose only known ‘misdeed’ is their denunciation
of continued military rule and their demand for immediate return to
democratic governance. The Media Rights Agenda considers the
continued detention of these individuals to be a gross violation of their
right to freely discuss and express their views on the current political
situation in Nigeria, a right specifically guaranteed under Section 36 of
the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1979 and Article 13
of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, which specifically
guarantees the right of every person to participate in the governance of
his country, either directly or through
freely chosen representatives.
The Media Rights Agenda also considers these arrests
and detention to be a subtle but dangerous form of censorship such as can
only occur within a militarized political framework, whose nature is
necessarily based on arbitrariness and the suppression of adverse
political views.
Accordingly, the Media Rights Agenda demands:
1. The
immediate and unconditional release of all pro-democracy activists
presently being detained by the authorities.
2. The
immediate termination of military rule, and the immediate return to full
democratic governance, this being the only political framework within
which the rights to free expression and free political participation can
be fully guaranteed and protected.
TIVE DENEDO
SECRETARY-GENERAL
MEDIA RIGHTS AGENDA
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