The editorial board of The Guardian had this information. Here is an excerpt:
Two recent incidents of assault on journalists pontificate growing concern about increased hazards being faced by Nigerian journalists in the course of performing their official duties recognized by the constitution. One, the Department of the State Services (DSS) and some policemen descended on a reporter with the Punch newspaper, Friday Olokor over the wearing of a press tag. He was brutalized and had his clothes torn; all in the journalist’s bid to cover a panel of discussants at the African Council of Women Conference in Abuja.
And two, Oluwagbemiga Olamikan, a photojournalist with the Vanguard newspapers, was allegedly manhandled by DSS operatives during a fracas after the secret police prevented some reporters from covering the trial of some supporters of Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho. Expectedly, the incidents have been widely condemned; but they neither diminish the danger to which journalists are exposed nor erase concern about official high-handedness, particularly of security personnel.
The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) in a reaction to the Vanguard photojournalist’s incident, criticised a proposal by the DSS to investigate it stressing that it would be an exercise in futility that would have no credibility. It called for a serious, independent and impartial investigation into this and other attacks against journalists.
Read the full article here.
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