Media groups have tackled President Muhammadu Buhari led administration for Abuse of Press Freedom and Human rights.
The groups consisting of International Press Centre, BONews and Media Rights Agenda tackled president Buhari during a twitter chat on Democracy and the state of Press Freedom in Nigeria which was organized by Media Right Agenda and BONews.
Speaking during the media chat was the publisher of BONews, Blessing Oladunjoye who said that the President Buhari Led administration has done nothing to make the work of journalism easier or safer for practitioners in the country.
Oladunjoye who made these comments in reaction to a question raised by the Moderator, Executive Director, MRA, Edetaen Ojo, said that the President was yet to honour the journalists who gave their lives for the cause of Democracy Day.
“The Buhari Administration has done nothing to honour the memory of journalists who gave their lives for the struggle for democracy in Nigeria. His administration has also not done anything to make journalism easier or safer for the practitioners
“Instead of honouring those journalists killed, this Government, its intelligence, law enforcement and other security agencies find any excuse to harass, intimidate and brutalise journalists while many State Governments follow their disgraceful example”.
Also speaking during the twitter chat was the director of International Press Center Lanre Arogundade who said that Nigeria journalists have faced assaults and threats while reporting COVID-19 issues
“This year, monitoring report conducted by the IPC in relation to journalists’ safety and COVID-19 reporting, shows that Nigeria journalists have faced assaults and threats while reporting COVID-19 issues.
“Between March and May 2020, there have been at least twenty (20) recorded incidents of Press Freedom violations linked to COVID-19 Coverage in Nigeria,” he wrote.
Further pointing out that the safety of Journalist was not a top priority of the Buhari led administration, Mr Arogundade who gave a list of journalists that were arrested in 2019 against the ethics of freedom of expression and press freedom Mr Arogundade wrote:
“Some of these press freedom/free expression infraction involved the detention of PREMIUM TIMES staff; Dapo Olorunyomi, Samuel Ogundipe including that of Jones Abiri, Agba Jalingo and the many others witnessed in the course of the 2019 elections.”
Mr Arogundade further called on President Muhammadu Buhari to put more effort into protecting press freedom.
Comments 2