The
Nigeria Labour Congress has said that the ongoing harassment of media
houses in the guise of searching for dangerous materials was
unacceptable under democratic governance.
The President of
the NLC, Mr. Abdulwaheed Omar, said the “seizure of newspapers, arrest
of circulation drivers of several newspaper publishing companies as well
as depriving the public access to information by operatives of the
Nigerian military and other security agencies is absolutely
unacceptable and clearly out of place in any democratic society” in an
electronic mail on Tuesday.
Omar said that
the military lacked the powers to trample on the freedom of the press
and other freedoms entrenched in the constitution.
He stressed that
the military also lacked the right to limit press freedom as the
congress could not find a link between insecurity and a free press in a
democratic regime.
He challenged the military to provide evidence of the involvement of the media in the violence and killings in the country.
Omar said that
the media remained a critical organ for democratic development stressing
that any move to suppress the media and its operations as shown by the
recent disruption of newspapers circulation would be resisted by the
congress.
“The military and
all the security agencies ought to know that all fundamental rights are
germane to democracy and therefore lack constitutional and legal rights
to unilaterally order the circumscription of freedom of press or any
freedom in any form as we cannot find the link between insecurity and a
free press in democratic governance.
“There is an
urgent need to prove the culpability of the news media in the ongoing
violent attacks against people and critical facilities in Nigeria.
“For us, we
strongly believe a free press is very critical in the sustenance of
democracy and any obstruction to the operations of any critical organ of
our democratic process would be resisted as the recent infringements in
the circulation of newspapers portend,” he added.
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