In January 2020, barely a few days to his wedding, a Nigerian journalist, Maxwell Nashan, was reportedly gagged and hacked to death. According to reports, he was firs abducted from his home. Why was he killed? Probably because he was doing his job. He worked with a government-owned radio state – the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) station.
Maxwell’s case was one of the many Nigerian journalists who have faced gory situations while doing their jobs in Nigeria – a nation tagged as one of West Africa’s most dangerous and difficult countries for journalists. In February, Alex Ogbu, a journalist with Regent Africa Times, died while covering a protest by the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) in Abuja.
Killers are still unknown and no update from the Nigerian authorities. In April, police personnel raided late Maxwell’s colleagues at the secretariat of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Adamawa and arrested 12 journalists. They claimed the pressmen violated the state government’s pronouncement on lockdown. Journalists were among the essential workers exempted from lockdown in Nigeria.
Nigeria is too difficult for journalists to operate. They are often spied on, attacked, arbitrarily arrested, or even killed, according to a Reporters Without Borders (RSW), a Paris-based NGO promoting press freedom.
Nigeria in the mix of 2020 World Press Freedom Index
In RWS’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index, Nigeria is among the worst violators of journalists’ rights, reporters, ranking 115 out of 180 countries. The West African country, however, dropped five places from the 2019 ranking.
In West Africa, Nigeria ranked among the worst nations like Equatorial Guinea (165/180), Cameroon (134), and Chad (123). Eritrea and Djibouti are Africa’s worst-ranked countries on the 178 and 176 spots, respectively, according to the World Press Freedom data.
World Press Freedom Day 2020 – Journalism without Fear or Favour
On May 3rd, 2020, journalists, media owners celebrated World Press Freedom Day. The 2020 edition was themed; “Journalism without Fear or Favour.” This year’s celebration came at a time COVID-19 has disrupted the world’s activities paving way for misinformation and conspiracy theories about the global pandemic.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the press provides the antidote for misinformation and global conspiracies: verified, scientific, fact-based news and analysis. The day is also a time where activists and international organisations remember journalists who lost their lives in the pursuit of a story and those in illegal detention.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urged governments worldwide to release all imprisoned journalists immediately and unconditionally with a petition. The petition has more than 11,000 signatures already.