New Threats To Press Freedom, By Gloria Mabeiam Ballason
When all is said and done, principles matter.
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Every threat provides an opportunity and when the most is made of the opportunity, it produces a desired outcome. The new or subsisting threats to the media can largely be surmounted by the basic codes and canons of journalism like courage, truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, fairness, social justice and public accountability. I would, to those codes, add consistency in upholding values.
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 10 of the Human Rights Act, and Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria confer on humans the right to freedom of opinion, expression, the press, and the right to receive and impart information and ideas, without interference by the public authority and regardless of frontiers. This is a qualified right, which enables anyone to hold free opinion and express them verbally, i
Nigeria s Catholic priests are in fear for their lives after a slew of kidnappings and attacks americamagazine.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from americamagazine.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The public alert by the Department of State Services (DSS) to the effect that some people are fomenting religious crisis in the country is a frightening addition to the unenviable plight of a nation already under siege from various threats to internal security. As the primary agency responsible for domestic intelligence in Nigeria, the DSS needs to go beyond warning Nigerians and take proactive measures, using its paraphernalia of office, to fish out the culprits and bring them to book appropriately.
The agency lately alerted the public to ‘‘plans by some elements working with external forces to incite religious violence across the country.’’ ‘‘Part of the plans,’’ the organisation went on, is to cause inter-religious conflicts as well as use their foot soldiers to attack some worship centres, religious leaders, personalities, key and vulnerable points.
Print Nigeria s President Muhammadu Buhari swears in ministers into his cabinet in Abuja, Nigeria on November 11, 2015. Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters
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Roman Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Matthew Kukah, in a Christmas message titled A Nation In Search Of Vindication, delivered a blistering critique of Nigeria s governance and political economy. The message was not a sermon, nor was it, apparently, delivered in a church setting. Rather it appears to be a message addressed to a wider audience than his fellow Catholics. In it he accused President Muhammadu Buhari of nepotism and making too many high-level appointments among his fellow northern Muslims. He said, “Every honest Nigerian knows that there is no way any non-Northern Muslim President could have done a fraction of what President Buhari has done by his nepotism and gotten away with