Communiqué
Introduction
A two-day Litigation Workshop for Lawyers on the Safety of Journalists was organized by Media Rights Agenda (MRA) in Abuja on Wednesday, April 14 and Thursday, April 15, 2021.
The goal of the workshop was to enhance the capacity of lawyers to litigate cases on behalf of journalists and media organizations that are threatened or under attack in an effort to combat impunity for such attacks against journalists. It was also aimed at ensuring accountability for attacks on journalists and the media in Nigeria, thereby combating the culture of impunity for such attacks and bringing about a conducive environment for the practice of journalism.
The workshop was organized as part of the activities under a project being implemented by Media Rights Agenda titled: “Ensuring the Safety of Journalists through Litigation”, which issupported by the Global Media Defence Fund (GMDF) through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
It was attended by 27 participants, drawn from different States across Nigeria. The opening session for the workshop was chaired by Ms Augusta Yaakugh, a legal practitioner based in Abuja, while other participating lawyers presided over the various sessions.
The workshop had in-person plenary presentations, video presentations and break-out sessions, which addressed, among other issues, the State of Attacks against Journalists in Nigeria; National, Regional and International Frameworks on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity; Laws, Legal Provisions, Policies and Practices Related to the Safety of Journalists; the Protection of Journalists under International Law; as well as Strategies for the Sensitization of Judges and Creating a Conducive Judicial Environment for Litigating Safety of Journalists Cases.
It also addressed Common Types of Attacks on Journalists; How to Stop Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists; Procedural Issues as well as Approaches and Strategies for Litigating Safety of Journalists Cases; and Remedies that can be Sought in Cases Relating to the Safety of Journalists and Strategies for Ensuring the Success of such Claims. At the end of the workshop, the participants agreed to adopt this Communique.
Observations
The participants made the following observations:
- It is a shocking irony that attacks on the media, particularly the killing of journalists, have escalated during the period of civilian democracy with the result that attacks on journalists have risen far above the levels recorded during the period of military regimes in Nigeria. This means that the democratic environment has become far more hostile and dangerous for journalists than the period of military rule.
- Information plays a very important role in the lives of lawyers, particularly accurate and reliable information as everything they do, including the practice of their profession and their participation in the governance of the country, depends on the knowledge that they derive from information.
- If journalists are frequently intimidated into distorting the information that they provide to the society or if they are too afraid to report truthfully and accurately because of constant attacks, legal practitioners and the entire society will be worse for it because most, if not all members of the public make serious and sometimes life-changing economic, political, professional and other decisions based on the information that they receive through journalists and the media.
- In the light of the above, legal practitioners have a self-interest in ensuring that journalists and the media have a conducive and enabling environment to practice their profession so that they can continue to provide lawyers and other members of the public with news and information that is reasonably accurate and reliable and that in turn enables the lawyers and other members of the public to make good and informed decisions.
- The Federal Government has a duty under various regional and international instruments to guarantee the safety of journalists and other media practitioners, to prevent attacks on them, as well as to investigate any attack, prosecute and punish the perpetrators of such crimes.
Recommendations
The participants therefore recommended as follows:
- Media organizations in Nigeria should undertake periodic and regular safety training for their journalists and other workers to ensure that they are able to carry out carry out their work safely and professionally. They should also kit the journalists and workers with the appropriate equipment, including protective gear, where necessary, to prevent or minimize their exposure to various hazards that they may confront as they carry out their work.
- Legal practitioners should take advantage of opportunities, which enable them to deepen their knowledge and understanding of issues relating to the safety of journalists as they may not frequently be engaged with such issues in the normal course of their practice. This will position them better to contribute to improving the society that they are a part of.
- Legal practitioners and civil society organizations should liaise with relevant organizations, institutions and agencies, such as the National Judicial Institute (NJI), the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) as well as the heads of various courts in organising sensitization programmes and activities for judicial officers on the safety of journalists so that judges are appropriately informed about the importance of the safety of journalists and their role in the process.
- Furthermore, legal practitioners litigating cases touching on the safety of journalists and other media workers should prepare their written addresses or briefs of argument, as the case may be, in part with the objective of enlightening and sensitizing the judge handling such matters about the issue of the safety of journalists. The lawyers should also prepare diligently for their cases and familiarize themselves sufficiently about the issue in order to adequately respond to questions or queries that the judges may raise.
- In order to ensure the speedy adjudication of cases touching on the safety of journalists in Nigeria as well as to ensure that judges handling such matters have the requisite knowledge and expertise, the heads of various courts in the country should designate judges to hear cases on the safety of journalists.
- In addition to the above and as part of efforts by Nigeria to meet its obligations under regional and international instruments to prevent attacks against journalists and ensure accountability for any such crimes, “Practice Directions” should be issued to guide the hearing and determination of such cases in order to improve the effectiveness of judicial mechanisms in addressing the challenge of crimes against journalists.
- The Federal Government should live up to its international treaty obligation to guarantee the safety of journalists and other media practitioners, including by preventing attacks on them whenever possible. In addition, the Government should ensure that all attacks on journalists and other media workers are investigated and that the perpetrators of the attack are prosecuted and punished.
- The Federal Government should take urgent steps to domesticate relevant regional and international instruments and standards on the safety of journalists in order to give impetus to compliance and enforcement processes at the national level as a way of ending impunity for crimes against journalists.
Adopted in Abuja this Thursday, the 15th Day of April, 2021.