Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has condemned the rising incidents of attacks on journalists covering the Coronavirus pandemic and other issues by law enforcement and security agencies and called on the Federal Government to ensure respect for the fundamental rights of journalists and the media.
“We are constrained to remind the Federal Government that it has obligations under various international instruments which it has voluntarily acceded to, particularly Article 66(c) of the Revised Ecowas Treaty, to ensure respect for the rights of journalists.
We are gravely concerned by the rampant cases of attacks by law enforcement and security agents on journalists carrying out their professional duties as well as the obstruction of such duties. This situation is unacceptable and will no longer be tolerated,” MRA’s Programme Director, Mr. Ayode Longe, said in a statement issued in Lagos today.
He cited the attack on March 28, 2020 by an operative of the Department of State Security (DSS) on the Imo State correspondent of Leadership newspaper, Ms Angela Nkwo-Akpolu, while she was taking pictures of a hotel in Owerri where guests were forcibly quarantined by security agents allegedly because the hotel failed to comply with government’s directives on checking the spread of COVID-19.
The DSS operative reportedly manhandled Ms Nkwo-Akpolu, seized her pair of prescription eye-glasses and forcibly deleted several pictures in her iPad.
Reports claimed it took the intervention of other journalists to stop a security agent from beating her .
In yet another incident, at about 4.00am on March 30, 2020, a group of soldiers manning a checkpoint at Mbiama, a border town between Rivers and Bayelsa States, attacked and damaged a circulation vehicle belonging to The Punch newspaper, preventing it from distributing copies of the newspaper in states in the South-South zone.
The driver of the Punch vehicle, Mr Sunkanmi Olusola said he and another circulation driver of the Nation newspaper were delayed at Mbiama by the soldiers who refused to allow them to continue their journey.
Mr. Olusola said one of the angry soldiers slashed one of his vehicle’s front tyres into shreds. The soldier had initially tried unsuccessfully to smash the windscreen of the Passat Golf 3 car before deciding to slash the tyre with a knife.
Mr. Longe while condemning these incidents, described as tragic the frequent resort to violence and brutality by law enforcement and security agents in their dealings with members of the public, including journalists, without any civility or respect for the basic constitutional rights of citizens.
“These incidents are doubly tragic because a free press and respect for the rule of law are necessary conditions in a democracy. Unfortunately, these security agents have consistently demonstrated that they are either not aware of these fundamentals of democratic rule or that they have no regard for them. This cannot be allowed to continue unchecked”, he said.
Mr. Longe noted that at a time when the world is confronting an unprecedented public health challenge with the Coronavirus pandemic, the media needs to have an unhindered access to the citizens as well as the freedom to give accurate information about the pandemic disease, the threat it poses and the means to combat it, among other issues.
He argued that “In a situation such as this, there can be no justification for these types of actions by the Government or its law enforcement and security agencies. The Government has a heightened responsibility to ensure that journalists and the media are able to perform their duties. This should necessitate taking extraordinary measures to protect journalists and their work and fully implementing all laws aimed at ensuring that journalists and citizens have uninhibited access to information. Unfortunately, we are constantly faced with a situation where the Government, which should be the protector, is the principal impediment.”
Mr. Longe called on Yusuf Magaji Bichi, the Director General of the DSS, and Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, the Chief of Army Staff, to call their officers and men to order and provide them with the necessary training about their human rights obligations to citizens and internationally recognized acceptable modes of engagement by law enforcement agents with citizens and civilian populations.
Segun Fatuase
seguntuase@gmail.com
08023092925
(with Agency reports)