Atiku: Freedom of the press ‘non-negotiable’

Former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has said that the freedom of the press is a non-negotiable component of democratic governments.

And since Nigeria is a democracy, Atiku thinks press freedom is indispensable.

Atiku was commenting on reports of military clampdown of copies of some newspapers, on the orders of “powers from above”.

“By attacking the press and arresting journalists, aren’t we slowly edging back to the dark days of military dictatorship?” Atiku queried on Twittter.

“The war on terror needs citizens’ and press’ cooperation, which is being made difficult by the harassment of the press.”

Soldiers seized hordes of copies of some national dailies on Friday, and froze their circulation in some parts of the country, but the military has described the action as security-related rather than malicious.

“The Defence Headquarters wishes to clarify that the exercise has nothing to do with content or operation of the media organisations or their personnel, as is being wrongly imputed by a section of the press,” director of defence information, Maj-Gen Chris Olukolade, said.

“The military appreciates and indeed respects the role of the media as an indispensable partner in the ongoing counter-insurgency operation and the overall advancement of our country’s democratic credentials. As such, the military will not deliberately and without cause, infringe on the freedom of the press.

“The general public and the affected media organizations in particular are assured that the exercise was a routine security action and should not be misconstrued for any other motive.”

However, the action continued on Saturday, with reports of  seizure of copies of the Leadership newspaper, and some other newspapers by soldiers in different parts of the country.

Mr Ekele Peter Agbo, Online Editor for the Leadership newspaper, said that copies of newspapers of the print medium were seized in Abuja, Minna, Kaduna and Lagos today.

And confirming the sealing off of a major newspaper distribution point at Area 1, Abuja , Mr Agbo also said: “I believe Leadership newspaper is being targeted because of the story we published last Tuesday about some army generals being court-martialled for having links with Boko Haram. There is no doubt that the story ruffled the top hierarchy of the military, hence the seizure of our newspapers.”

When TheCable got to the newspaper distribution point at Area 1, newspaper agents and vendors were milling about the place.

One of the vendors, Samuel Eyiola, said he had witnessed a dwindling of his earnings since the “attack on newspapers”.

Reminding the military that Nigeria is a democracy, he pleaded: “Let the military know that newspaper business is where some people eat. They shouldn’t make life more difficult for us”.