Featured, Media
By Anayo Ezugwu
THE year 2019 was a mixed grill for the media in Nigeria and the world at large. For some media houses, it was a year of unlawful detention and harassment for some journalists by security agencies. The country’s sluggish economy affected the revenue flow to the media organisations, resulting in lean revenues and delayed wages.
But some online publications such as Realnews, News Express, TheNiche and Freedom Online managed to wade through the poor revenue outlook to mark their anniversaries in the year under review. Realnews Magazine and Publications Limited, on November 19, celebrated her seventh anniversary and unveiled the book ‘Pathways to Political and Economic Development of Africa.’
This year’s lecture was unique in that it was delivered by a former President of Ghana, John Mahama, who spoke on “Beyond Politics: An Economic Narrative for West Africa”. It was followed by the investiture into the Realnews Hall of Fame.
The lecture had Mansur Muhtar, vice president, Islamic Development Bank and former Nigerian minister of finance, as chairman, while Alex Okoh, director general, Bureau of Public Enterprises and Margaret Olele, chief executive officer, American Business Council, were the discussants.
The choice of the topic for 2019, according to Maureen Chigbo, publisher and editor, Realnews, was informed by the need to escalate and broaden the conversation on the economic challenges facing West Africa with Nigeria as the regional economic powerhouse. And this is against the background of the recently endorsed Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement, AfCFTA. “More countries in the West Coast are discovering oil, which is a finite resource and how about the danger of over-dependence on oil revenue and the unending call for economic diversification?”
Those inducted into the prestigious Realnews Hall of Fame, exclusively reserved for only guest speakers, discussants, Realnews book reviewers and chairpersons at the Anniversary Lecture Series are Mahama, Muhtar, Okoh, Olele and Comfort Coleman, chief executive officer, Nekego Resources Limited.
Despite the successes recorded by Realnews and other media organisations, the industry is still threatened with the hate speech and social media regulation bills before the National Assembly, which have been perceived as a ploy to gage the press in the country. The bills seek to penalise persons found guilty of hate speech. The social media bill prescribes a three-year jail term, upon conviction, for anybody or group of persons, who sent false text messages or post false messages on the social media against another person.
While the hate speech bill prescribes death penalty for any person found guilty of any form of hate speech that results in the death of another person. It also seeks the establishment of an Independent National Commission for Hate Speeches. For offences like harassment on grounds of ethnicity or race, the offender shall be sentenced to not less than five years in jail or a fine of not less than N10 million or both.
The bills have not been passed but journalists in the country are already facing tough times in the hands of governments and its agencies. The height of the harassment and incarceration in 2019 is the case of Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters. On August 3, Sowore was arrested by the Department of Security Services, DSS, for alleged treason after calling for protest tagged #RevolutionNow, money laundering and cyber-stalking.
The detention of Sowore has taken a worrying turn after the DSS released him on Thursday, December 5 on the order of court, but attempted to re-arrest him on Friday December 6, which resulted in a scuffle involving his lawyers. Following the incident, Femi Falana, lead counsel of Sowore’s legal team, confirmed the activist was back in the DSS custody.
Apart from Sowore, some journalists in the country and across the world had it rough in the hands of government and security agencies. On October 24, the Nigeria police arraigned Joe Ogbodu, an editor with the privately owned news website Big Pen Nigeria and Prince Amour Udemude, a reporter with National Mirror newspaper on four counts of criminal defamation and one count of disturbing the peace of the state. On August 22, Agba Jalingo, journalist and publisher of Cross River Watch, news website, was arrested and has been charged with disturbance of public peace and treason for his writings and posts on social media about Governor Benedict Ayade of Cross River State.
On January 6, Hamza Idris, an editor with Daily Trust newspaper was arrested in Abuja when the military invaded the premises of the company. Soldiers with AK47s walked between the newsroom desks repeating his name. Likewise, on September 24, Owoidoho Udofia and Okodi Okodi, journalists with Inspiration FM in Akwa-Ibom State, were forced by police to take off their shirts and roll on the ground, and were beaten with sticks after covering a protest in Uyo.
Udofia and Okodi said they sustained injuries from the beating. Udofia said his left eye was swollen for days and Okodi said he suffered from back pain. The two journalists said they were attacked after covering a protest in the Mbierebe Obio community of Akwa Ibom State that was demanding justice for a youth allegedly killed by police. Part of their coverage included an interview with Macdon Odiko, the Akwa Ibom police spokesperson, about the alleged police killing.
– Dec. 30, 2019 @ 9:55 GMT |
Tags: A tough year for the media in Nigeria #Events of the Year 2019
