NLC Condemns Clampdown On The Media Houses, Demands Evidence of Culpability

Posted by African Examiner Latest Headlines, News Tuesday, June 10th, 2014

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has condemned the current clampdown on the media houses in the name of security.

NLC National President, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, in an E-mail sent on Tuesday, raged that the “seizure of newspapers, arrest of circulation drivers of several newspaper publishing companies as well as depriving the public access to information by the joint security operatives is absolutely unacceptable and out of place in any democratic society”.

Comrade Omar source told African Examiner stressed the military lacked the powers to trample on the freedom of the press and other freedoms entrenched in the constitution.

He added the military 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.

Omar therefore challenged the military to provide evidence with respect to involvement of the media in violence and killings in the country, contending that media remained a critical organ for democratic development and any attempt to suppress it and its operations as shown by the recent disruption of newspapers circulation would be resisted by the congress.

NLC posited: “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”

The nation’s workers union insisted “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”

NLC declared, “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…”