A new report by the Centre for Media and Society (CEMESO) has revealed that attacks on journalists and media practitioners accounted for 71.4 per cent of press freedom violations in Nigeria in January 2025.
According to the latest Media and Expression in Nigeria (MEiN) Report, five out of seven documented incidents involved direct attacks on media personnel, including physical assaults, unlawful detention, assassination, and harassment.
The report identified security agencies as the primary perpetrators, being responsible for 57 percent of the recorded incidents. Other actors, including politicians and non-state actors, contributed to a climate of increasing hostility toward journalists.
In one notable case, Emmanuel Okoronkwo, a protocol officer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), reportedly assaulted Ndubuisi Orji, a journalist with The Sun newspaper, at the party’s headquarters in Abuja.
Another troubling incident involved the detention of Emmanuel Uti, a reporter with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), by the Federal Criminal Investigation Department in Lagos over a report published in November 2024.
Perhaps most concerning was the murder of Yomi Adetula, Director of Anti-Arms Smuggling at the So-Safe Corps in Ogun State, who was killed by suspected assassins. Adetula was reportedly a key witness for FIJ in a libel lawsuit.
The report also documented journalists being barred from covering the Edo State Election Tribunal by Department of State Service (DSS) personnel, which the local NUJ chapter condemned as “a blatant assault on press freedom.”
In Kano State, security agents reportedly targeted journalists who covered a press conference held by families of police brutality victims from the #EndBadGovernance protests of August 2024.
Other incidents involved a judicial action against political commentator Shehu Mahdi for allegedly false claims about French military deployment in Nigeria and the shutdown of three broadcast stations by the Nigeria Labour Congress over minimum wage disputes.
The MEiN report found that 71 percent of those affected by these violations were journalists, underscoring serious concerns about media safety in Nigeria.
CEMESO, which publishes the MEiN report monthly, continues to monitor and document media freedom violations across Nigeria through content analysis of media reports.
The full report is available here. https://cemesong.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MEiN-January-2025.pdf
(Kindly hyperlink the ‘here’)