Press Under Siege: Nigeria’s Slipping Freedom & The Cost Of Silence
Institutional Accountability & Democratic Linkages
Nigeria’s Decline in Global Rankings
NIGERIA is closing 2025 with a grim reputation. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) now ranks the country 122 out of 180 in its latest Press Freedom Index — a fall from 115 in 2024. Beyond the numbers lies a worsening pattern of intimidation, detention, and legal repression.
Press Freedom Is Not a Lone Right
A free press survives only where expression survives. Shrinking civic space, political intolerance, and violence against reporters are not isolated infractions — they are democratic fault lines. The 2024 Openness Index by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) reinforces this, framing violations as symptoms of structural democratic deficits, measured across seven dimensions including legal safeguards, political tolerance, and journalist safety.
Lessons from Other Sectors
Nigeria’s institutions have shown accountability is possible when constitutionally compelled, as seen with structured constitutional reviews like the NOC’s stocktaking cycles. Media governance should not remain an exception.
The Bigger Question
A press constrained by violence breeds opaque governance and performative elections. The International Press Institute (IPI) made this erosion of accountability its core theme during its December 2025 conference in Abuja. Nigeria’s story is no longer only about repression — it is about the absence of structural protections that should make repression impossible.
