Following the continued arrests and harassment of investigative journalists in Nigeria, the Chairman of Pacesetter Frontier Magazine, Onochie Jon-Igwesi has appealed to the wielders of political power to be circumspect and more tolerant of the activities of journalists.
Jon-Igwesi who spoke on Afia TV’s ‘News Today’ expressed concerns about press freedom and freedom of speech in the country, noting that the surging clampdown on journalists was alien to the ideals of democracy.
Tracing the litany of journalists that had been hounded in Nigeria from Nnamdi Azikiwe, Dele Giwa, Agba Jalingo, Daniel Ojukwu, to Fisayo Soyombo, David Hundeyin, Jones Abiri and more recently anonymous X whistleblower, PIDOMNigeria and Adejuwon Soyinka, Jon-Igwesi explained that even “the West hasn’t been excluded because as recently as in 2020, journalists who covered the protests that broke out when George Floyd was murdered in the US were also arrested”.
In his words: “Press and Media Laws have taught that the concept of freedom of speech can be likened to a rose with thorns, indicating that even though you’re free to express yourself, there’s also this necessity that you do it within the confines of laid down laws.
“So, what a democratic institution ought to do would be to define those laid down laws and ensure that those laws are not made with anyone in mind to avoid seeming like you’re out for vendetta and not to have a sane society.
“When you look at these journalists, they are not speaking for themselves. They are exposing an ill, something they assume is true from their investigations. I feel that the proper thing should be for authorities to investigate those findings and when true, restore sanity in the system, not clamping down on journalists for even daring to investigate. It would look like the system is encouraging corruption”.
Informing that the incarceration of journalists will not kill a story due to the global network and affiliations of journalists, the Media Executive suggested that investigative journalists may also consider whether certain stories should be leaked and escalated on social media or simply directed to the authorities concerned to avoid the ‘trap’ of accusations of endangerment of the nation’s sovereignty.
“There should be some sort of code that should guide the profession. However, we should actually find out if these laws have been defaulted before clamping down on journalists.
“Journalists should also be guided by the fact that we’re all interested in fixing the nation, having a nation that works and not for the nation to burn. So, if there are ways that could be employed beyond leaking things on social media, that’s good and fine.
“Where journalists tell lies, they should be made to face the full weight of the law, but where you’re hounding them for simply telling the truth, it is not good for any government and it is certainly not good for Nigeria”, he said.