Human Rights Day: Groups Warn Nigeria Slipping Into Media Repression
By DAVID JOHN-FLUKE
THE Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and SERAP have used the 2025 Human Rights Day to issue a stark warning over the rising intimidation of journalists and activists, demanding that authorities free all persons detained for peaceful speech and dismantle legal tools used to suppress dissent.
Speaking at a press briefing in Ikeja after a stakeholders’ session on threats to civic space, both organisations highlighted a surge in attacks on media professionals, with 110 verified incidents recorded in 2024 and 56 journalists assaulted or arrested during nationwide protests last August. The clampdown, they noted, has pushed Nigeria down ten places to 122nd on the 2025 World Press Freedom Index.
They condemned the continued deployment of the Cybercrime Act and criminal defamation laws—along with strategic lawsuits by powerful individuals—to silence investigative journalism. Recent arrests of Fejiro Oliver, Media Room Hub’s Azuka Ogujiuba, and FIJ’s Sodeeq Atanda were cited as emblematic of a broader pattern of abuse.
SERAP and NGE urged the government to honour constitutional guarantees and international obligations, insisting that pending legal challenges to the Cybercrime (Amendment) Act at the ECOWAS Court should restrain authorities from weaponising the law against critics.
