The Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has ordered the federal government to amend certain sections of the Nigerian Press Council Act of 1992.
The decision of the court was communicated in a statement issued on Sunday.
According to TheCable, two Nigerian journalists, Isaac Olamikan and Edoghogho Ugberease, sued the federal government for violating their freedom of expression rights by imposing restrictive criteria for practising journalism in 2021.
They went on to say that the Nigerian Press Council Act of 1992 discriminated against online and citizen journalists and that it failed to recognise public interest media.
Dupe Atoki, the judge rapporteur, declared that sections 19 (1)(a), 27 and 37 of the Act failed to recognise public interest media, including the rights of online and citizen journalists, thereby violating article 9 (1) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), as well as articles 8 (1) and 10 (2) of the African Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa.
The judgment reads:
“For example, Section 37 of the Press Council Act, puts the minimum age to practice journalism as 18 years of age, while to be qualified as an editor, requires a minimum of 25 years of age”.
“Sections 19(a) and 27 of the Act imposes educational qualifications and compulsory courses of attendance and training before a person can be recognized and allowed to practice as a journalist.”
The journalists claimed that Nigerian security operatives arrested them in separate locations while they were conducting investigations and gathering information for their journalistic work.
The pair claimed that their arrests and detention were illegal and violated their rights, and they asked the court to order the government to pay them $1 million in damages.
Maimuna Shiru, director of civil litigation at the federal ministry of justice and the government’s counsel in the case, argued in its defence that the rights to information and freedom of expression were not absolute.
Shiru denied the journalists’ claims that they were unlawfully detained and arrested by government agents, claiming that the arrests had national security implications.
Although the court denied the journalists’ request for $1 million in compensation, it did recognise the impact of technology in the evolving media space with the introduction of online journalism.