Media Rights Agenda has released a report showing that state actors were responsible for nearly 74 percent of all attacks on journalists and freedom of expression recorded in Nigeria between January 1 and October 31, 2025.
The 129-page report, titled “When Protectors Become Predators: The State Against Freedom of Expression in Nigeria,” revealed that the Nigeria Police Force emerged as the worst offender, accounting for 45 percent of all incidents of media rights violations.
The report was issued in commemoration of this year’s International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists.
Other perpetrators of attacks on journalists include operatives of the Department of State Services, various branches of the military and paramilitary agencies, as well as elected and appointed political office holders at the federal and state levels.
MRA documented at least 69 incidents during the period under review, including arbitrary arrests and detention, physical attacks, threats to life, invasions of media offices, abductions, and other forms of harassment or intimidation of journalists performing their legitimate professional duties.
The report further noted that the climate of pervasive impunity for attacks against journalists has eroded public trust in government institutions and continued to fuel further violations as perpetrators are rarely identified, investigated or prosecuted.
This has created an environment of fear and self-censorship that is weakening democratic governance, according to MRA.
Mr. Ayode Longe, MRA’s Deputy Executive Director, said journalists in Nigeria are increasingly under siege from the very state institutions charged with protecting them.
He described the trend as a fundamental breakdown of law enforcement accountability and a direct assault on democracy and the rule of law.
“The report shows that journalists in Nigeria are increasingly under siege, not just from criminals and insurgents, but principally from the very state institutions charged with protecting them.
“This trend is a direct contradiction of the government’s constitutional and international legal duty to guarantee the safety of media practitioners and uphold the public’s right to be informed,” Longe said.
MRA insisted that ensuring the safety of journalists is a legal and moral obligation of the government, enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution, Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
MRA called on the Nigerian government to establish and enforce accountability mechanisms for government officials involved in attacks on journalists and to reform and retrain security, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies to respect and uphold human rights and media freedom.
The organization also proposed the establishment of a national multi-stakeholder protection mechanism for journalists and the adoption of urgent measures to end the misuse of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, 2015, as amended, and other repressive laws against the media.
MRA called on the National Assembly to enact legislation that specifically criminalizes attacks on journalists and urged the National Judicial Council to develop a system for monitoring the misuse of judicial processes to harass journalists while taking measures to prevent such abuses.
The full report is available for download at https://bit.ly/4oKzxoN.