Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned the Nigerian Army’s raids on the Daily Trust newspaper and the arrests of two of its editorial staff over a report that the army had lost of control of several towns in Borno state.
In a statement by the group on Tuesday, it said the raid was a serious violation of press freedom, and urged the Nigerian authorities not to obstruct journalists, regardless of the stories they cover.
It will be recalled that armed soldiers on January 6 raided Daily Trust headquarters in Abuja, where computers were seized, while its bureau chief, Uthman Abubakar and a reporter, Ibrahim Sawab were arrested in the northeastern city of Maiduguri same day.
Also, soldiers also took up position on 6 January outside the Daily Trust bureau in Lagos, and stayed there all day without going inside.
“It is unacceptable that the military should take justice into their own hands, carrying out arbitrary arrests, seizing equipment and intimidating journalists just because an article was not to their liking,” said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF’s Africa desk.
“It is also imperative that the Nigerian authorities should stop treating journalists who cover Boko Haram’s activities as this rebel group’s accomplices.
He added: “We ask them to order the release of the journalist who is still being held and the return of the confiscated equipment, so that the newspaper can continue to do its job to report the news.”
It recalled how the Nigerian military targeted the Daily Trust, regarded as one of the leading sources of coverage of Boko Haram activities in northern Nigeria few years ago.
“Soldiers stormed into the newspaper’s office in 2013 in an attempt to arrest a reporter who wrote a story critical of the military.
“Delivery trucks of the Daily Trust and three other newspapers were seized by soldiers the following year to prevent distribution of issues containing reports reflecting badly on the military.
“Nigerian journalists are often obstructed in the course of their work and are the frequent victims of heavy-handed operations by soldiers or the intelligence services,” the group stated.
According to RSF’s tally, journalists and media outlets were the targets of more than 30 press freedom violations in 2018, eight of them directly attributable to the security services.
Nigeria is ranked 119th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2018 World Press Freedom Index.
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