Assessment of Press Freedom in Nigeria

This position paper examined the state of press freedom in Nigeria. The primary objective of the paper is to bring to the fore, the condition of the media ecosystem in Nigeria. Anchored on the Social Responsibility Theory and the Libertarian Theory of the press, the paper explored various researches that have been conducted on the subject matter. Significantly, seven press laws in the Nigeria’s corpus of laws were reviewed, and from them, inferences were drawn that provides insight into the prevailing press environment in the country. Among other things, the paper shows that the major source of challenge to press freedom in Nigeria is the government and her agents. The paper also pointed out that there are some obnoxious anti-press laws which are in contrast to the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that guarantees freedom of the press but which are still in force and to which recourse is often made to intimidate and harass the media. Additionally, the paper posits that the attitude of successive governments towards a free press environment has largely been unfriendly, thus, posing further difficult challenges for the free operation of the press in Nigeria.