For
immediate release, Wednesday, August 30, 2017
The Partnership for Media and Democracy
(PAMED) has called on the Federal Government to restrain the Nigerian Army from
monitoring the social media activities of Nigerians, describing the action as a
violation of the rights of Nigerians to freedom of expression and the privacy
of their communications guaranteed by the Constitution and international human
rights instruments to which Nigeria is a party.
PAMED, comprising International Press Centre
(IPC), Media Rights Agenda (MRA) and the Institute for Media and Society (IMS),
said in a statement in Lagos that it had painstakingly studied the declaration by
the Nigerian Army that it would henceforth monitor the social media for alleged
‘anti-government, anti-military and anti-security’ information and expressed
concern that such a move provides enormous opportunities for abuse of power and
the violation of the fundamental rights and freedoms of Nigerians by the
military.
The Director of
Defence Information, Major-General John Enenche, said on August 23, 2017,
during a live programme on Channels Television that “the move became necessary
in the light of troubling activities and misinformation capable of jeopardizing
the unity of the country”.
He specifically declared: “What are we
doing? In the military, we are now taking on it more seriously than ever. We
have our strategic media centres that monitor the social media to be able to
sieve out and react to all the ones that will be anti-government, be
anti-military, (and) be anti-security”.
Weighty Implications
PAMED said the
declaration has a lot of grave implications, because if the threat is carried
out it could, among others, lead to:
·
The violation of the right of freedom of expression as
constitutionally guaranteed for Nigerians and as protected by important
international instruments and charters especially the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, and the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to mention a few;
·
The undermining of the right of the public to know about the
activities of the government including the security agencies which in a
democracy are subordinate to civil authorities;
·
The non-guarantee of the safety of media professionals,
especially online journalists and those covering the activities of the
military;
·
The incapacitation of the media to carry out the obligation to monitor
governance and hold the government accountable to the people as stipulated in
section 22 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended;
·
The infringement of the right
of opposition political parties to take the ruling parties at the Federal,
State and Local levels to task on their policies, programs and performance;
·
The breach of the right
of the electorate to hold elected politicians accountable for their campaign or
electoral promises; and
·
The encroachment of the right of the civil society, unions,
pro-democracy activists, etc to express dissent over government policies they
may consider injurious to their collective and/or individual interests.
Our demand
PAMED said in view of the serious
implications of the Army’s declaration, it was calling on the army authorities to immediately
withdraw the threat to monitor the social media for alleged anti-government,
anti-security and anti-military information as it is antithetical to democratic
principles and values.
The Partnership also called on the army
authorities to promptly dismantle any media centres it might have established
for this unwelcome purpose.
SGD:
Mr. Lanre
Arogundade, Director, International Press Centre (IPC)
Mr. Edetaen
Ojo, Executive Director, Media Rights Agenda (MRA)
Dr. Akin
Akingbulu, Executive Director, Institute for Media and Society (IMS)
