NEWS now travels almost at the speed of light. This was not the case not too long ago, especially in the developing world. In Nigeria, for instance, newspapers as late as the 1990s published the results of league matches several days after they were played. The situation is now completely and positively different. The amazing advances in technology have made it possible for news to be disseminated and removed as an event is taking place.
THE media has reached new frontiers, but it is not lord of all it surveys. The media stands in a clearing, but there is still a forest that restricts its vision and freedom. This is the theme of this year’s World Press Freedom Day — 21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers.
SOME countries restrict their citizens’ access to the Internet. Nigeria does not engage in this Big Brotherism, but most Nigerians do not have access to the Internet, the new information frontier. Computers are expensive and are beyond the financial reach of most Nigerians. Subscription to the Internet does not also come cheap.
THE barriers that Nigerians encounter in the new information age have more to do with purchasing power than a predatory policy like Decree 4, which the Buhari regime used to jail two journalists, though they had written a factual story.
THE press in Nigeria was not free under the military. But the press refused to be cowed, not even after a journalist was killed when he opened a parcel cowardly and cruelly rigged with a bomb. The murder has not been solved, and it was said that investigation was obstructed by very powerful people.
THE military closed down newspapers and set fire to printing presses. The Abacha regime sent some journalists to prison on the trumped-up charge that they were involved in a coup plot.
CHIEF Olusegun Obasanjo, who took over from the military, was barely tolerant of the press. Though he had handed over power as a military dictator 20 years before, Chief Obasanjo expected the press to show to his administration a batman’s servility. He insulted journalists, questioning their education and intelligence. He once said he did not read Nigerian newspapers.
CHIEF Obasanjo during his administration did not order a newspaper to stop publication, as he had done in the case of Newbreed magazine while military head of state. But he did not promote their financial health. It was revealed that there was a secret policy on advertisement and purchase of newspapers in government offices and it was not press-friendly.
SECURITY agents stopped the circulation of the entire print run of a magazine on one or two occasions, but the press was generally free during the Obasanjo administration. The press asserted its constitutionally guaranteed freedom.
THE press had played a leading role in the restoration of democracy. It was right to insist on its freedom, as it had courageously done under the vicious dictatorship of General Sani Abacha.
THE Nigerian press enjoys the freedom provided by the country’s constitution, but it is hampered by the high cost of materials. Almost everything needed for the production of a newspaper has to be imported. The price of newsprint is becoming intolerable. The newsprint company that the Federal Government established was crippled at birth by corruption.
THE then President Obasanjo refused to sign the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill. The debate on the bill began all over again and it has now been passed by the current National Assembly after it initially refused to do so. The passed bill was watered down to the point of meaninglessness.
RULERS try to curtail the freedom of the press, but they are not the only ones who do harmful things to the practice of journalism in the country. Newspapers have often been accused of being sensational. But this can be a matter of perspective and perspective is sometimes influenced by sentiment.
BUT there is no doubt that journalism needs to be practised with more professionalism in the country. Stories are sometimes not thoroughly investigated before they are published. A story has at least two sides, but only one side of a story is usually published by some newspapers. This is inexcusable in the age of the mobile phone.
THERE is also the matter of integrity. A watchdog should not allow itself to be tempted, no matter the size of the bone.