A former Commissioner for Information in Rivers State, Barr Emma Okah, has said that press freedom in Nigeria is restricted and journalists do not have opportunity to operate freely.
He said that there was gagging of the press and journalists not allowed to do the job as they should in the environment in which they find themselves.
He was speaking on World Press Freedom Day celebrated around the world on May 3 during a phone interview.
The former Commissioner for Information said: “There’s no satisfactory freedom of the press in Nigeria today. The reason being that the press is not free to express itself and satisfy public aspiration for true and accurate information. The press has become largely politicized and intimidated by the governmental forces that we operate”.
He said that there should be an “unfettered press” to get the views of the people heard saying that it was the common practice around the world.
He said that nothing should be beyond the press to talk about adding that the access to information by the people should not be restricted.
“In Nigeria the Constitution of the Federal Republic, 1999, as amended stipulates that the press shall be the watchdog of society and shall demand accountability from government. You know today that there are certain things the press cannot say. There are certain places they cannot go. There are certain things they will not hear. So when you have that kind of environment the people are short-changed”.
He said that there should be media tolerance on the part of government to let the press operate freely.
He said that was necessary because free press was about the people who consume information.
He however said the challenges faced by the press were aberrations which should not be in place in the country’s democracy.
“They are abnormalities when they rear their heads here.”
He said that the people should come first and not the government and appealed to the press to do the job the way they should.
He said that journalists should be objective and report events without bias.
Advising the government, Barr Okah said the government should minimize the gagging of the press because it was becoming a trend.
He said if the government does not want to be criticized it should do things right saying that it could not stop the press from criticizing it when it was not doing things right.
