Wednesday, July 19, 2023: Dr Tabani Moyo, Regional Director of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and a member of the African Freedom of Expression Exchange (AFEX), was, today, elected Convenor of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), the global network of freedom of expression organizations, for the 2023 -2026 term. As Convenor, he chairs the 13-member IFEX Council, the governing body of the network elected by the general membership.
Dr Moyo was elected at inaugural meeting of the newly elected IFEX Council held virtually on July 19 2023, thereby becoming the third African to lead the global network since its establishment over 30 years ago. He follows in the footsteps of Mr. Luckson Chipare, currently Chairperson of the MISA Regional Trust Fund Board; and Mr. Edetaen Ojo, Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda (MRA) and current Chairperson of AFEX, both of whom have previously served as IFEX Convenors.
Mr. Andrei Klikunou, the Belarusian Association of Journalists’ International Relations Department Manager, was elected Deputy Convenor while Ms Marianela Balbi, the Executive Director of the Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS) in Venezuela, was elected Treasurer.
“To us, this is a delegation of responsibility from the members of the Council, it is simply members of the Council delegating strategic assignments to its members,” Dr Moyo told the AFEX Secretariat soon after the meeting.
“We accept this call to leadership with utmost humility and pledge to be of service in defence of free expression, a right increasingly under attack in this age of fragmentation, and shifting geo-politics.”
“We, therefore, commit to consolidating solidarity and genuine collaboration among members.”
IFEX was established in 1992 in Montréal, Canada, by leading freedom of expression organisations from around the globe in response to increasing attacks on the fundamental right of expression.
It was set up with the aim to establish mechanisms of solidarity and co-operation among the organisations. Today, the organisation has a global spread, with more than 100 organisations operating in more than 70 countries.
The Gambia’s transition from autocratic rule under strongman, Yahya Jammeh, to democratic governance in 2017, brought with it major improvements in internet freedom. Now Gambians are able to leverage the cyber space to participate in national discourse without fear that the government will shut down the internet or arrest them for being critical of statecraft as Jammeh did.
In addition, Gambians are actively leveraging the internet to improve the provision of economic, social and health care services with an online registration for a national health insurance scheme, being cited as an example of the good progress.
All these are in spite of the fact that the Adama Barrow government, which has committed to steering the country away from the iron fisted oppression that Jammeh ruled it with, is still in the process of repealing draconian laws that the strongman had used to tyrannize and curtail free expression.
For many Gambians, even though a draft Criminal Offences Bill tabled before the National Assembly, which will repeal criminal libel and sedition, has not yet become law, there is faith the current government will see the process through.
The progress made so far also includes massive improvement in internet penetration. However, even though the state perpetrated internet shutdowns that used to occur under Jammeh have ceased, there still are frequent internet disruptions that occur due to technical inadequacies. Then, there is the problem of prohibitively high cost of internet in the country which has more than 48% of its population still living below the poverty line. Internet service providers blame the high cost of data on high government taxes.
Along with the high cost of internet is poor data security so that Gambians leveraging the new internet freedoms are exposed to the danger of data theft and misuse. In November 2022, The Gambia’s poor cybersecurity came into strong focus when the country’s central bank suffered two hacks that resulted in the theft of USD2.5million.
In this report, AFEX highlights the challenges to internet freedom in The Gambia and makes recommendations on how the situation can be improved.
On May 29, 2023, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu took over from President Muhammadu Buhari as the new helmsman in Nigeria’s presidency. Even though the new president is supposed to govern largely from the same All Peoples Party manifesto, there is one area where the media and press freedom advocates hope President Bola Tinubu will diverge and positively distinguish himself from his predecessor.
In February 2015, a few months before Buhari was elected president for his first term, he mounted the podium in a room full of diplomats, politicians, and business leaders at the Chatham House in London. Expressing remorse for his high-handedness during his 20-month military dictatorship in 1983-85, Buhari said to applause that he had become “a converted democrat” who was ready to commit to the entrenchment of democratic norms if he won the election.
However, Buhari’s military rule was characterised by undemocratic norms. He clamped down on dissenting voices – intimidating, harassing and jailing critics, including music legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti, whose songs criticised military dictators and corrupt politicians. Buhari also enacted decrees that punished journalists and media houses that published articles deemed as offensive to his regime. Under these decrees, several newspapers were shut down and many journalists were sentenced to jail.
During the Chatham House encounter, Buhari solemnly promised to promote the consolidation of democracy in Nigeria and guaranteed that freedom of the press would not be compromised in any way.
Sadly, Buhari’s eight-year civilian rule was not very much different from his military rule, according to democracy watchdogs. His tenure witnessed numerous attacks on freedom of the press and expression. The Buhari government blatantly refused court orders, journalists were killed and harassed, media outlets were fined and attacked for bogus infractions, Twitter – which gave a platform for many citizens to express their voices – was banned for months, and civil protesters were intimidated and killed.
The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) reviews here some of the instances that illustrate the clampdown on freedom of expression under the administration of the outgone president for the attention and guidance of President Tinubu.
Impunity over the killing of journalists
In a classic case that underlines the entrenched impunity for crimes against journalists, 20-year-old student journalist, Pelumi Onifade, was discovered dead a week after he was assaulted and carried away by the Lagos State Task Force. The body of Onifade, who was covering the #EndSARS protests for online medium Gboah TV on October 24, 2020, was found in a morgue in Ikorodu, Lagos. His family lawyer said his body had bullet wounds.
On January 21, 2020, Alex Ogbu, a journalist with the Regent Africa Times newspaper, was shot and killed when the police dispersed protesting Shi’ite Muslims using live bullets in Abuja. In a related circumstance, on July 22, 2019, Precious Owolabi, a reporter with Channels Television, was reportedly killed by a police bullet while he was covering a protest by members of the minority Shiite Muslims in Abuja.
On January 15, 2019, Maxwell Nashan, a journalist with the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN)in Adamawa State, was found tied and muzzled in a bush with his body hacked at several places. Nashan, who had been abducted from his house the previous day, died on arrival at the hospital.
In 2017, a joint report by the MFWA and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) highlighted four cases of Nigerian journalists being killed in separate incidents with no credible inquiry into the culprits and the motives behind the attacks. The victims were Ikechukwu Onubogu, a cameraman with the Anambra Broadcasting Services, Lawrence Okojie of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) in Edo State, Famous Giobaro, a desk editor with Glory FM in Bayelsa State, and freelance broadcaster, Abdul Ganiyu Lawal, in Ekiti State.
Repressive cybercrime law
There has also been longstanding concern about the use of Nigeria’s cybercrime law to repress critical journalism and civic discourse online. The law, adopted in 2015, presumably to secure online security and privacy, tackle cyber fraud and boost the country’s digital economy, has become notorious for its frequent manipulation by the authorities to silence criticism and dissent online. A poster victim of this grotesquely elastic law is Agba Jalingo, publisher of the news website CrossRiverWatch.
Jalingo was remanded in an Abuja prison on March 27, 2023, for publishing an article deemed malicious against Elizabeth Ayade, wife of the younger brother of Ben Ayade, the then-governor of Cross River State in south-south Nigeria. The journalist was said to have committed an offence punishable under Section 24(1)b of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act 2015. He was later released on bail and the case is still in court for trial.
Agba Jalingo is still in court for trial
Luka Binniyat, a freelance journalist based in Kaduna in northwest Nigeria, has also been a victim of the cybercrime law. In November 2021, the journalist was arrested by the police and eventually imprisoned for 90 days following a report a month earlier published by US-based news site The Epoch Times. Samuel Aruwan, the then-Kaduna state commissioner for internal security and home affairs, petitioned the police to arrest Binniyat for indicting him in the report. The journalist was freed in February 2022 after the court granted him bail to the tune of one million naira (US$1,300).
Blasphemy infamy
The gruesome killing of Deborah Samuel – a second-year student of Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto in northwest Nigeria – on accusations of blasphemy demands a thorough probe and justice for the victim.
On April 5, 2022, an activist, Mubarak Bala, was sentenced to 24 years in prison for blasphemy. Prior to the sentence, Mubarak, who was the President of the civil society group Humanist Association of Nigeria, had been detained for two years on the same charge of blasphemy.
On accusations of blasphemy, Deborah Samuel (left) was gruesomely murdered by her colleague students while Mubarak Bala was sentenced to 24 years imprisonment in Nigeria
A Sharia court in the northern Nigerian state of Kano also sentenced a singer to death by hanging after finding him guilty of blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad. The court said a song composed by Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, 22, and subsequently circulated via WhatsApp in March 2020 was demeaning of the Prophet. The song praised the founder of the Tijaniya Muslim sect, Sheikh Ibrahim Niasse, to the extent that his critics said it projected the Senegale above the Prophet Muhammad. The prosecution was an act of pandering to religious fanatics who burnt down Sharif-Aminu’s family home and demanded his killing.
Much as we uphold respect for the religious sensibilities of people and their hallowed institutions and personalities, we deplore the extremist and frenzied and mob-driven reprisals that follow alleged cases of blasphemy in Nigeria.
Twitter Ban
On June 4, 2021, the Buhari government blocked access to the microblogging social media platform Twitter, claiming the platform’s activities were capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence. Curiously, the ban happened two days after the social media platform deleted a tweet by Buhari because it violated the company’s policies.
Buhari tweeted that he would deal with agitators in “the language they will understand.” The tweet’s tone sounded genocidal and caused a wave of protest on Twitter, prompting the social media platform to delete it. Analysts said the then-president’s threat sounded like what happened during the Nigerian Civil War (1967-70), during which more than one million people reportedly died when secessionists from the country’s southeast region sought to create an independent Biafra nation for the Igbo ethnic people.
For deleting his tweet, the government indefinitely suspended the operations of Twitter, which had been playing a key role in the dissemination of information among Nigeria’s teeming youths and amplified the citizens’ voices. Buhari lifted the Twitter ban in January 2022 after the government said the platform had met Nigeria’s requirements for continued operation.
Court orders yet to be complied with
The Buhari government was notorious for defying court orders. Outstandingly, on March 25, 2022, the ECOWAS Court of Justice ruled that Section 24 of Nigeria’s Cybercrime Act, which focuses on prohibition and prevention, among other areas, was at variance with Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The court, therefore, ordered Nigeria’s government to align the repressive article 24 of the cybercrime law with the aforementioned instruments. As of the end of Buhari’s tenure, his government had yet to comply with the ruling that followed a case filed by (SERAP), a non-governmental organisation.
In an instance of non-compliance with court orders, the government has yet to honour an ECOWAS Court of Justice ruling which ordered the payment of a sum of 30 million naira (USD$39,000) to journalist Agba Jalingo as compensation for his mistreatment while in prison for his critical reports against the Cross River state government under the then-governor Ben Ayade.
Arbitrary arrest and harassment of journalists
Journalists were frequently harassed and arrested under the Buhari government.
Among the many instances was the arrest of John Adenekan, the assistant managing editor of the online newspaper Peoples Gazette in Abuja on July 22, 2022. Two other journalists, Ameedat Adeyemi and Samuel Ogbu, and two administrative personnel, Grace Oke and Justina Tayani, were also arrested. They were released several hours later after bowing to pressure from rights groups.
The journalists were arrested after their platform published a report detailing how Nigeria’s anti-graft agency recovered loot worth billions of naira from a former chief of army staff, Tukur Buratai. The ex-army chief was reported to have petitioned the police, who effected the journalists’ arrest.
Peoples Gazette’s managing editor, Samuel Ogundipe, who spoke to MFWA at the time, was not shaken by the event, narrating how the outlet had faced several attacks aimed at intimidating its journalists since its founding in September 2020.
MFWA reported how the Buhari government restricted access to the outlet’s website in January 2021 due to critical reports against the government. Also in January 2022, operatives of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) invaded the outlet’s head office in Abuja.
The raid and arrests of journalists during the Buhari government were often greeted by nationwide outrage as they brought to the memory of many Nigerians the dark era of military dictatorship when journalists were brutally harassed and media houses clamped upon.
Broadcast stations sanctioned
Similarly, MFWA reported several times that broadcast stations were sanctioned by the Buhari government for arbitrary offences like granting interviews to dissenting voices. Among frequent targetswere privately-owned stations Channels TV and Arise News. Then, in August 2022, National Broadcasting Commission, the broadcasting industry regulator, revoked the licences of 52 television and radio stations for alleged indebtedness to the tune of 2.6 billion naira (US$3.4 million). The action was later undone, though, after the Federal High Court in Lagos ruled against NBC’s action.
Clampdown on protesters
In clear defiance of the Nigerian constitution giving citizens the right to assembly, security operatives under Buhari on several occasions clamped down on protesters, often hiding under the excuse that the protests constituted public disturbance.
One of the many cases was the infamous Lekki shooting that garnered worldwide outrage. The event was marked a tragedy for a nation. On the night of October 20, 2020, members of the Nigerian Army opened fire on unarmed EndSARS protesters at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos, reportedly killing at least 12 protesters and injuring many others. World leaders, including US President Joe Biden, called on the Nigerian government to cease the “violent crackdown on protesters.”
The election that brought President Bola Tinubu to power was marred by extensive attacks on journalists covering the process. The MFWA recommends to the new Nigeria leader order an inquiry into the frenzied attacks on the media during the elections to provide appropriate redress and take measures to prevent a recurrence in the future.
We urge President Tinubu to also order an audit of the many SLAPP suits that several Nigerian journalists have been battling over the years to intervene to get them disposed of as quickly as possible.
The MFWA and its partner organisation in Nigeria, the International Press Centre as well as the Nigeria Union of Journalists affirm our commitment to working with the government of President Tinubu to promote press freedom and the safety of journalists in Nigeria.
A journalist Gerald Niyirinda working for Voice of Muhabura Radio based in Kisoro district, in Western Uganda has been allegedly assaulted by the Gateway bus Manager as he covered a demonstration staged by passengers in the bus park of Kisoro.
Gerald was assigned together with Dickens Twinomujuni an intern at the station by the Chief News Editor of Voice of Muhubura, Julius Irakunda to cover a group of passengers who were traveling from Kampala to Kisoro, but the bus driver and his conductor decided to leave them in Kabale which prompted the passengers to board another vehicle to reach their final destination in Kisoro from where they started a demonstration against being dropped off half their journey.
Mr. Irakunda told Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda (HRNJ-Uganda) that at around 12:00 noon, he receives a call from Dickens that Gerald had been assaulted and his voice recorder destroyed.
He told HRNJ-Uganda that, “Gerald was interviewing one of the passengers when the manager of GateWay bus services, one Yusuf came from behind and grabbed him and violently started slapping him as he also tried to take away his voice recorder. In the process, the recorder was destroyed and his shirt torn.
He said that Gerald managed to escape from the hands of Yusuf and started running as Yusuf pelted stones at him in a bid to inflict more pain on him.
A case of assault and malicious damage to property has been filed by Gerald with the help of his Editor at Kisoro Central Police Station.
The Deputy OC-CID of Kisoro Central Police Station Robert Tuhabwe has confirmed to HRNJ-Uganda that the journalist had filed a criminal case against the Manager Yusuf and that the police has taken the case seriously and is already handling it, though Yusuf is yet to be apprehended. He said that Yusuf has also filed a countercase of criminal trespass against the journalist.
We highly condemn the violent actions of the public service bus manager of slapping the journalist in the line of duty and destroying his voice recorder. We invite the police to arrest and expeditiously investigate the case so as to serve justice to the journalist and the media at large. We commend the Chief News Editor Julius Irakunda for standing with the journalist in pursuit of justice.” Said the HRNJ-Uganda Executive Director, Robert Ssempala
The minister of trade of Kenya accused a major media outlet of being partisan amidst insults to journalists working for the media outlet.
Moses Kuria, Kenya’s Trade Cabinet Secretary, uttered disparaging remarks against the Nation Media Group (NMG). Specifically, Kuria labelled the media as an “opposition party” as he questioned whether the NMG is newspaper, broadcasting house or an opposition party. The minister went further by threatening to fire any government official who advertised with the media group. According to media sources, Kuria also took the assault to Twitter and tagged the workers at the NMG as prostitutes.
The minister also claimed that journalists at the NMG had confessed to being coerced to write anti-government stories by their editors and management in the past.
Kuria made the comments after the NTV, the media outlet’s television station, aired an investigation into an alleged scandal over an import scheme operated by a state body in Kuria’s ministry. The investigation alleged that government officials were involved in a corrupt scheme related to duty-free cooking oil imports, which, incurred substantial financial losses for taxpayers.
Kuria’s comments against the privately owned NMG have sparked outrage and raised concerns over press freedom. Journalists and media professionals in Kenya condemned the offensive remarks, calling for the minister to retract them and issue a proper apology.
On June 21, 2023, Kuria refused to apologize despite the widespread criticism, and claimed that nobody was more pro-media than him.
Meanwhile, the High Court in Nairobi issued a censure motion against Kuria, preventing him from further insulting or vilifying the media. The injunction will remain in effect pending the hearing of a petition that accuses the minister of breaching the values of governance and leadership as outlined by the Kenyan constitution. The court is scheduled to hear the case on July 24, 2023.
The African Freedom of Expression Exchange (AFEX) strongly condemns Honorable Kuria’s verbal attacks on the Nation Media Group. We urge the politician to resort to other appropriate channels to address his concerns.
We commend the swift action of the High Court in Nairobi in response to the incident that can easily coerce the media into self-censorship, hence suppressing press freedom.
As representatives of the Kenyan state, government officials are expected to protect and promote fundamental freedoms, which include freedom of expression. Conversely, the media play an important role in ensuring that citizens are well-informed and that those in positions of power are held accountable. It is therefore unsettling that a top government official like Honorable Moses Kuria resorts to attacking the media when he comes under pressure to account to the public.
We highly condemn the brutal actions that were meted out against journalists who covered the by-elections of the Bukedea District Local Council (LC5) and consequently the confiscation of their gadgets.
While journalists must at all times be able to cover functions and events, including political events like elections, they have been victims of election violation and abuse in Uganda majorly at the hands of the security forces who are mandated to safeguard them while on duty.
The journalists were attacked while covering the distribution of voting materials for the by-elections and their gadgets ruthlessly confiscated.
The affected journalists included Eddy Enuru a correspondent for NBS TV, George Muron a correspondent for Daily Monitor and reporter at Mama Bukedea FM and John Bosco Ojojo of Continental FM.
Eddy was covering the distribution of voting materials at Township Primary School polling station when he received a tip that some voting materials that had been delivered were tampered with. He was attacked by plain-clothed men who physically assaulted him bruising his neck. They also confiscated his camera and damaged his mobile phone in the full glare of electoral officials and security people in uniform.
The gadgets of George Muron and John Bosco Ojojo were confiscated by unknown men riding on a motorbike as they left Tamula polling station in Bukedea Town Council
The Bukedea LC5 by-election was a result of the death of Moses Olemukan in December 2022. The by-election is alleged to have been marred by ballot stuffing, intimidation, and violence.
Candidates in the race include; Mary Akol for the National Resistance Movement (NRM) who was declared the winner of the race, Tychicus Lokwiisk an independent, and Sam Oita of the Forum for Democrat Change (FDC) who later pulled out of the race citing massive electoral malpractices.
The FDC party President Patrick Amuriat Oboi and the NRM Electoral Commission Chairman Dr. Tanga Freddrick Odoi have come out to condemn the harassment and intimidation of journalists who were covering the elections. “As FDC, we condemn the intimidation, torture and imprisonment of media practitioners in their line of duty while covering this election,” Amuriat said.
HRNJ-Uganda has since extended medical and legal support to some of the victim journalists.
We call on the security forces, the Electoral Commission, and the candidates together with their supporters to ensure the safety and security of journalists covering elections. We also call on the leadership of the various security forces, mainly the police and army to take action against their officers who are implicated in violating the said journalists’ rights.
Nine protesters have died, the internet has been disrupted and the signals of a pro-opposition television station temporarily cut as the conviction of Senegal’s opposition leader Ousmane Sonko plunges the country into chaos.
Deadly riots broke out in several cities across Senegal on June 1, 2023, after the court verdict with the security services responding with brutal force.
“We regretfully noted the acts of violence that resulted in the destruction of public and private property and, unfortunately, nine deaths in Dakar and Ziguinchor,” Interior Minister Antoine Diome said on national television on the night of June 1, 2023.
The state authorities have cut the signal of the television channel Walf Tv on DTT and Canal+ for at least 48 hours. Walf TV, like most Senegalese TV channels, dedicated an editorial to the trial of Ousmane Sonko. Several reporters and regional correspondents were dispatched to follow in real time the demonstrations that broke out following Sonko’s conviction. The opposition leader was sentenced to two years in prison and fined 600,000 CFA francs (around $1,000) for “corrupting young people”.
Specifically, the authorities are criticising Walf TV for showing continuous images of the demonstrations. They justify the suspension of the television station on the basis of Article 192 of the Press Code.
“In exceptional circumstances, the relevant administrative authority (Governor, Prefect or Sub-Prefect) may, in order to prevent or put a stop to an attack on State security or territorial integrity, or in the case of incitement to hatred or incitement to murder, order: the seizure of a media outlet’s broadcasting equipment; the suspension or cessation of the broadcast of a programme; the temporary closure of the media outlet”, Article 192 of Senegal’s Press Code states.
The management of Walf TV said that they had not received any notification prior to the suspension. The Conseil national de régulation de l’Audiovisuel (CNRA), the media regulator, denies any responsibility for the cutting of Walf TV’s signal on DTT.
In addition to taking Walf TV off air, the authorities also disrupted the internet, with several social networks heavily restricted.
“NetBlocks metrics confirm the restriction of Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, Telegram and other social media platforms in Senegal on 1 June 2023. The measure comes amid widespread protests over the sentencing of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko,” said NetBlocks, the global internet monitoring platform.
The incidents of June 1, 2023, are not a first. In February 2023, the CNRA suspended Walf TV for seven days. The media regulator accused the station of violating the code of ethics by showing scenes of violence. The TV station covered live a protest march by supporters of the opposition politician Ousmane Sonko which turned violent.
Two years earlier, in March 2021, several civilians were killed, access to social networks was restricted and at least two media outlets were suspended when protests broke out following Sonko’s arrest.
The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) is deeply concerned about the actions of the authorities which have occasioned severe violations of the right to freedom of assembly, press freedom and access to information. While we condemn the excesses on the part of some demonstrators, the MFWA is dismayed by the disproportionate response from the security agencies which has led to regrettable deaths. We call on the authorities to investigate the violence on both sides and to punish the perpetrators of the lethal repression. We also call on the authorities, the law enforcement agencies, civil society and political parties to take the necessary measures to ease political tensions, ahead of next year’s presidential elections.
The proliferation of technology has created new opportunities for journalists and journalism in Africa, but it has also come with threats. For civil society, academia, media development practitioners, activists and development partners, it is critical to understand the key issues related to freedom of expression and the internet and possible ways to address them as part of programming and strategic intervention.
At the Africa Media Convention (AMC), which was held in Lusaka, Zambia on May 11-13, 2023, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) convened a session that explored threats to media freedom and journalists safety in the digital age and comprehensive measures to tackle them.
During the session, which brought together over 40 stakeholders from across Africa, it was acknowledged that technology had enabled groundbreaking journalism, ease of reach to diverse audiences which has also enabled active engagement, and more accessible content production avenues. With this evolution, new actors have joined the sector and new regulation and economic sustainability models have been witnessed, all with implications for the future of media freedom and democracy.
However, the digital era has also seen an exponential increase in online harassment of journalists, criminalisation of aspects of journalism, surveillance of journalists, and the orchestration of disinformation campaigns. These threats have translated into offline risks of physical violence, thereby undermining the safety and independence of journalists, while also eroding freedom of expression.
According to Kamufisa Manchishi, a lecturer in the Faculty of Journalism and Public Relations at Zambia’s Mulungushi University, digitalisation in the media had created several “crises”. One of them was an identity crisis, whereby journalists and media houses are struggling to balance their online presence with upholding journalistic principles and ethics. Linked to the identity crisis was a financial crisis of generating revenue and sustaining operations. “This has caused clickbait journalism and led to compromise of ethics,” said Manchishi.
Manchishi added that fears of being surveilled by the state and private actors had led to increased self censorship. He said: “Journalists do not want to talk about controversial issues on phone or virtual platforms. They are worried someone is listening and are opting to conduct interviews and investigations physically.”
Meanwhile, misinformation and disinformation continue to proliferate on legacy media as well as on social and digital media. CIPESA research indicates that disinformation from online platforms is often amplified through traditional print and broadcast media. Soren Johannsen, BBC Media Action’s Zambia Country Director, called for more innovative approaches to promoting digital literacy.
Whilst applauding various stakeholders’ efforts in debunking and fact-checking, Johannsen advocated for more interventions designed around pre-bunking as an inoculation theory for behavioural change. “We shouldn’t try to just correct and verify but help users understand where false information is coming from, the motivation and the consequences,” he said. Such efforts should be complemented with more research to help understand the originators, flows and uptake of misinformation and disinformation.
As disinformation and misinformation threaten democracy, public security, and social cohesion, there has been an increase in legislative responses including the enactment of laws on cybercrime, computer misuse, hate speech and “false news”. However, many of such laws in place are vague and broadly criminalise “false news” or “offensive publications online” without, for instance, distinguishing between misinformation and disinformation, and have been weaponised against critics, journalists and media houses.
Citing various examples from West Africa, Dora Mawutor, the Programme Manager at the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), said the determination of what qualifies as false news lies with the state and its “self-serving purposes”. She called for more solidarity among the media fraternity to push back against the selective application of such laws through increased coverage of legislative developments and of attacks against journalists. Mawutor also called for advocacy for review or repeal of such repressive laws.
Echoing Mawutor’s sentiments, Alfred Bulakali, the Regional Director of Article19 West Africa, stated that laws across Africa that govern freedom of expression and media freedom often come with heavy sanctions against offenders yet they fall short of the three part test under international human rights standards. He noted that media freedom advocates around Africa had scored successes in securing the decriminalisation of libel and defamation provisions in traditional press laws. However, added Bulakali, “technology has given them [the decriminalised provisions] an opportunity to come back” through laws and regulations being developed to govern media and freedom of expression online. He called for renewed efforts in decriminalising libel and defamation online and offline and limiting the power of law enforcers to interpret the laws.
On online harassment, Cecilia Maundu, a Kenyan broadcast journalist, digital rights researcher and digital security trainer, stated that online gender-based violence is under-reported, even though some newsrooms have dedicated gender desks. Meanwhile, newsroom policies are also weak or non-existent, putting women journalists at increased risk. As a result, there was limited visibility of online gender-based violence in mainstream media and inadequate support for survivors. This calls for more response measures and programming that not only focus on newsroom policies and safety mechanisms, but also on psychological support.
The joint responsibility alluded to by the various speakers at the session around advocacy, movement building, institutional capacity building, skills and knowledge development as well research and documentation are key planks of CIPESA’s programming and engagement at national, regional and international levels to advance access to information, privacy and data protection, and free expression online as enablers of citizen participation, resisting authoritarianism, protecting women’s or other marginalised groups’ rights, amplifying people’s voices, and engendering accountability.
LAGOS, Sunday, May 28, 2023: Media Rights Agenda (MRA) today called on incoming President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to make transparency and accountability the cornerstone of Nigeria’s democracy and accused outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari of monumental failure in the implementation of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, which it said had resulted in a legacy of secrecy after his eight years in office.
In a report titled “A Legacy of Secrecy: The FOI Act under the Buhari Administration”, issued by MRA to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the signing into Law of the FOI Act by then President Goodluck Jonathan on May 28, 2011 as well as the end of the Buhari Administration on May 29, 2023, the organization noted that “governance during the Buhari Years was characterized by blatant violations of the provisions of the FOI Act by the vast majority of public institutions and willful disregard for their obligations under the Law.”
According to Mr. Ayode Longe, MRA’s Programme Director, “Over the last eight years, scores of public institutions spent millions of naira engaging lawyers to defend their refusal to comply with the provisions of the FOI Act and disclose information to members of the public requesting such information even when there was clearly no legitimate basis for withholding the requested information. Not in a single instance did President Buhari or anybody in his Administration express disapproval for this widespread practice or reprimand any of its institutions engaged in the practice.”
MRA’s report examined the Buhari Administration’s performance in terms of any measures, policies or other actions taken to ensure effective implementation of the FOI Act as well as how public institutions complied with their obligations under the Act, including the requirement for them to submit annual implementation reports to the Attorney General of the Federation, who has oversight responsibility for the implementation of the Act.
Mr. Longe noted that although Section 29 of the Act imposes an obligation on all public institutions to submit annual reports on the implementation of the Act to the Attorney General of the Federation, the level of compliance with this reporting obligation by public institutions remained shockingly low throughout President Buhari’s tenure, without any ministry, department or agency of the Government ever being reprimanded or otherwise sanctioned for disobeying this mandatory provision of the Act.
According to him, out of the 1,316 ministries, departments, and agencies of the Federal Government in the records of the Federal Civil Service Commission, less than 100 had bothered to submit their FOI Act implementation reports for any given year, from 2015 and 2022, with no action taken against any of the more 90 per cent of them that refused to comply with this requirement, thereby encouraging and institutionalizing impunity.
Referring to data obtained by MRA from the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, he observed that only 44 out of the 1,316 public institutions submitted their reports for 2015; 54 public institutions submitted for 2016; 73 submitted for 2017; 70 submitted for 2018; 89 submitted for 2019; 73 submitted for 2020; 89 submitted for 2021; while 90 submitted for 2022, putting the highest rate of compliance ever at 6.84 percent for the year 2022.
Noting that this was a very dismal performance by any standard, Mr. Longe said “These figures reveal an alarming disregard for transparency and accountability by most public institutions. But it is even more disheartening that the Presidency, which should set the example the entire Government, did not respond to a single request for information made to it during President Buhari’s eight years in power. This gross failure of leadership cannot be ignored and must be rectified in order to restore public trust and confidence in our government. Such a pattern of non-compliance must be reversed by the incoming Administration.”
He described as “deeply concerning” the fact that the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), who is responsible for overseeing the FOI Act implementation, did not make any recommendations to the National Assembly on how to improve compliance by MDAs with their FOI Act obligations, suggesting that he was satisfied with this sorry state of affairs.
Additionally, Mr. Longe said, the Attorney-General did not take any step to review or update the Guidelines for the Implementation of the FOI Act, which was put in place in 2013 by his predecessor, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN), in order to make the implementation process consistent with advancements in technology and various judicial pronouncements over the last 12 years, which could have greatly aided implementation efforts.
He called on the incoming government of President-Elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take proactive steps to ensure the effective implementation of the Act and allocate adequate resources for this purpose in the Federal Government’s annual budgets, saying good governance cannot be possible without transparency, accountability and citizen participation in government, which the Act can help to engender.
For further information, please contact:
Idowu Adewale (Mr.)
Communications Officer
Media Rights Agenda, Lagos
E-mail: idowu[@]mediarightsagenda.org
The state of press freedom in Uganda keeps deteriorating with each passing day.
Uganda is currently ranked number 132 out of 180 countries under the World Press Freedom Index 2022. Legal and sociopolitical restrictions continues to limit freedom of expression in Uganda. Journalists in the country face alarming dangers for critical reportage against President Yoweri Museveni’s style of governance.
In its latest report, Press Freedom Index 2022, Human Rights Network of Journalists-Uganda (HRNJ-Uganda), reported 94 cases of human rights abuse and violations against journalists, and media houses.
According to HRNJ-Uganda, the hostile environment in which journalists and other media practitioners operate in Uganda has created endless tension and fear. In the face of these challenges, a considerable number of journalists have resorted to self-censorship, limiting press and media freedom.
Thus, the theme for this year’s World Press Freedom Day – Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of expression as a driver for all other human rights – is quite apt as it serves as a reminder of the centrality of freedom of expression in the enjoyment of all other human rights.
Media freedom and freedom of expression are increasingly facing challenges in Southern Africa as countries in the region enact laws that have an adverse effect on these rights.
In the past decade, Southern Africa made tremendous strides in improving the media freedom legislative environment, with the enactment of laws that guaranteed access to information, while freedom of the media became a constitutionally guaranteed right in most countries.
However, despite this progress, countries are increasingly enacting laws that negatively impact the right to access to information and the right to free expression.
For example, Botswana has enacted the Criminal Procedure and Evidence (Controlled Investigations) Act, while Mozambique has the Social Communications Law and is drawing up a law that will affect the operations of civil society. Malawi has also enacted a similar law.
The Private Voluntary Organisations Amendment Bill is at an advanced stage of being enacted in Zimbabwe, while the country is also coming up with amendments to the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, that will have a chilling effect on freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.
This is coupled with the introduction of laws across the region that criminalise the publication of falsehoods. Some countries have also come up with cyber security laws that ostensibly are meant to protect data online but, in essence, criminalise defamation and the publication of falsehoods.
Research and court rulings have proved that criminalising defamation and the publication of falsehoods has a chilling effect on freedom of expression and of the media.
Internet shutdowns are increasingly seen as a tool for shutting down critical voices, such as what happened in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe in the past few years.
There are also emerging threats that come with the growth of the digital ecosystem, among them, cyberbullying, particularly of female journalists.
Thus, the theme for this year’s World Press Freedom Day – Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of expression as a driver for all other human rights – is quite apt as it serves as a reminder of the centrality of freedom of expression in the enjoyment of all other human rights.
Freedom of expression is an enabling right for the enjoyment of other rights and when it is under threat, as it is right now, other rights also face similar threats. It is important to point out that all human rights are universal, interdependent, indivisible and interrelated.
Freedom of expression’s function as an enabler of all other rights has been explored and is the cornerstone of many international human rights treaties.
It is imperative for Southern African countries to strongly stress and emphasise the importance of freedom of expression and centre it in the overall discussions of human rights.
It is, therefore, important that Southern African countries revisit the problematic laws that infringe on freedom of expression and of the media. In their stead, they should develop laws that adhere to African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights declarations and protocols.
In addition, laws should stick to international standards on human rights and United Nations charters and declarations.
By doing so, regional countries will be building towards a future that is based on the respect for human rights and democratic governance.
A free, pluralistic and independent media is key for the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 (The Africa we want).
Thus, this World Press Freedom Day should serve as an opportune time for us to pause and imagine what kind of a future we want for Southern Africa.
In dreaming of a better future, it should be one that puts human rights at the core of everything, with freedom of expression being at the centre, considering its role as enabler of all other rights.
LAGOS, Wednesday, May 3, 2023: Media Rights Agenda (MRA) today called on the Federal Government to ensure adequate protection for media freedom in law and in practice, saying the relentless attacks on the media over the years had also undermined the general human rights protection for all Nigerians, democracy and sustainable development in the country.
In a statement to commemorate this year’s World Press Freedom Day and the 30th anniversary of proclamation of the Day by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993, MRA said by strengthening the right to freedom of expression, which is a critical human right that serves as a driver for all other human rights, the Government could ensure a future where all other human rights are adequately protected and respected in Nigeria.
MRA’s Programme Director, Mr. Ayode Longe, noted in the statement that given enormous duty imposed on the media by the Constitution, particularly Section 22, which requires the media sector to ensure that the Government lives up to its responsibilities to the people and to hold the Government accountable, the failure to provide adequate protection for the media was impeding its ability to perform these functions upon which good governance, democracy and sustainable development in Nigeria depend.
He said: “The clear evidence before us is that no other sector of the Nigerian society has faced such relentless attacks for decades as the media sector has had to endure. By placing the responsibility of policing a powerful institution like the Government on the media without adequate or commensurate protections, the media has been made a target for attacks by all corrupt or incompetent government officials seeking to hide their misdeeds or mistakes.”
Observing that this year’s World Press Freedom Day is being commemorated with the theme “Shaping a future of rights: Freedom of Expression as a driver for all other human rights”, Mr. Longe said “It is only in an environment where freedom of expression is adequately protected and respected that citizens can have the confidence to engage in public discourse; criticize government policies and officials; make meaningful contributions to policies; advocate for their own rights as well as the rights of others.”
MRA also called on the incoming Administration of President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu to make a commitment to protect media freedom and to do so by, among other things, reviewing and amending existing laws and regulations to ensure they provide robust legal protections for freedom of expression, in conformity with international standards; taking steps to ensure the safety of journalists, offline and online, as well as by investigating and prosecuting attacks on journalists, and holding perpetrators accountable.
