SERAP NGE press freedom call urges Tinubu government to protect journalists and address insecurity ahead of World Press Freedom Day

As the international community marks World Press Freedom Day tomorrow, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE) are calling on the government of President Bola Tinubu.

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Nigeria’s state governors and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory to ensure press freedom, protection of journalists and urgently bring an end to the escalating insecurity and widespread human rights violations across several parts of northern Nigeria, including in Benue State, Plateau State, Borno State, Sokoto State, and Kwara State.

We note that protecting journalists and safeguarding information integrity are central drivers of peace, security, and democratic stability.

Any credible peace, recovery, or security strategy must integrate information integrity and support for free, independent, and pluralistic media alongside humanitarian, institutional, and economic responses.

The erosion of independent journalism and civic information ecosystems directly contributes to governance breakdown.

When journalism is weakened through intimidation, repression, or impunity for attacks against media professionals, corruption thrives, accountability declines, and misinformation expands.

In such environments, information violence often precedes physical violence, further deepening insecurity and undermining public trust in state institutions.

Strengthening media freedom, protecting journalists, and ensuring access to reliable information are essential components of any sustainable response to insecurity in Nigeria.

These measures are critical not only for documenting violations but also for preventing them, ensuring accountability, and supporting early warning mechanisms in conflict-affected communities.

We reiterate that efforts to address insecurity and human rights violations in Nigeria must include concrete commitments to protect journalists, strengthen media institutions, and safeguard the free flow of credible information as an indispensable foundation for accountability, peace, and democratic resilience.

We note that that the UNESCO theme for the 2026 World Press Freedom Day Conference, entitled “Shaping a Future of Peace”, underscores the centrality of a free, independent, and viable media ecosystem to peace, security, and sustainable development.

The Conference highlights that protecting journalists and safeguarding information integrity are not peripheral concerns, but core drivers of peace and security.

We are seriously concerned about the scale and persistence of killings, abductions, sexual violence, forced displacement, and destruction of property and the deepening governance and accountability crisis.

We are concerned that thousands of people have been unlawfully killed and millions displaced in several parts of northern Nigeria, alongside ongoing patterns of attacks on rural communities, abductions, and grave abuses against women and children.

These trends reflect systemic failures to prevent foreseeable harm, protect communities, identify and prosecute the perpetrators and their sponsors, and ensure access to justice and effective remedies to victims.

These grave human rights violations and failures constitute serious breaches of Nigeria’s obligations under the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended], the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Nigeria is a state party.

The humanitarian consequences remain severe: communities destroyed, livelihoods lost, and victims left without effective remedies.

The persistence of impunity continues to erode public trust and weaken democratic governance.

Nigerian authorities at all levels have binding constitutional and international human rights obligations to end the growing insecurity across the country and the impunity of perpetrators, which continue to fuel grave human rights violations and abuses.

The Bola Tinubu administration, state governors and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory have binding duties to exercise due diligence in investigating the grave human rights violations and abuses in the context of the insecurity and to remedy the violations and abuses by bringing to justice the perpetrators and their sponsors and ensuring justice for the victims and their families.

We note that Section 22 of the Nigerian Constitution imposes a clear obligation on the media to hold the government accountable to the people, while Section 39 guarantees the right to freedom of expression.

These constitutional protections, together with Nigeria’s obligations under international human rights law, require the State not only to refrain from interference but also to actively protect journalists and ensure a safe environment for reporting on insecurity and human rights violations.

Addressing insecurity in Nigeria requires more than reactive responses. It demands a sustained commitment to accountability, transparency, and human rights.

Embedding these principles into governance and security frameworks is essential to breaking the cycle of violence and restoring public confidence in democratic institutions.

We therefore call on the Federal Government and state authorities to:

1. Guarantee freedom of the press and freedom of expression, as provided in the the 1999 Constitution (as amended)

2. Protect civic space and journalists as well as promote victim-centred, ethical media reporting

3. Take immediate and systemic actions, including by strengthening preventive, intelligence-led, and community-based security measures in high-risk areas.

4. Publicly acknowledge that widespread killings, abductions, and destruction of property constitute violations of the rights to life, dignity, security, and property, and cannot be justified under any circumstances.

5. Ensure prompt, thorough, independent, impartial, transparent and effective investigations into all reported grave human rights violations and abuses.

6. Identify and prosecute perpetrators and their sponsors including those who may have aided, enabled, or failed to prevent the violations despite prior knowledge of risks and dismantle networks responsible for attacks.

7. Ensure access to justice and effective remedies to victims and their families, including adequate monetary compensation, restitution, rehabilitation, and guarantees of non-repetition, and psychosocial support.

8. Improve transparency around security operations and accountability processes.

9. Fully implement constitutional and international human rights obligations.

10. Develop and implement a robust legal and institutional framework to prevent future violations, including early-warning systems and protection for at-risk communities.

11. Create a public registry or reporting system documenting incidents, responses, and accountability measures to strengthen oversight and citizen trust.

12. Direct all relevant agencies to respect, protect, promote, and fulfil human rights in line with Nigeria’s domestic and international legal commitments.

We further urge the Tinubu administration, Nigeria’s state governors and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory to extend formal invitations to relevant mandate holders of the United Nations Human Rights Council—particularly Special Rapporteurs with relevant mandates—and to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Special Rapporteurs, to undertake fact-finding visits to Nigeria.

Such visits should focus on documenting the scale and patterns of insecurity across the country, particularly in several parts of northern Nigeria, and the resulting grave human rights violations and abuses, including killings, abductions, sexual violence, torture, and enforced disappearances.

The findings of these independent mechanisms should inform concrete recommendations on accountability, justice, and remedies for victims, as well as structural reforms to prevent further violations.

We also urge the National Assembly to exercise its constitutional oversight responsibilities under Sections 88 and 89 of the Nigerian Constitution by convening an urgent public hearing on insecurity and the growing pattern of attacks on journalists and media freedom in Nigeria.

Such a hearing should examine the role of security agencies, regulatory bodies, and other state actors in grave human rights violations and failing to protect journalists and other citizens reporting on insecurity, with a view to strengthening accountability and justice and legislative safeguards.

We also call on the international community to reinforce pressure on Nigerian authorities at both federal and state levels to take urgent and concrete steps to end the escalating insecurity and entrenched impunity driving widespread human rights violations across the country.

We further urge the international community to encourage and put pressure on the Nigerian authorities to prioritise the protection of people including journalists in conflict-affected and high-risk areas, and to ensure that civic space is safeguarded so that journalists, human rights defenders, and media organisations can report freely and safely on insecurity and human rights violations without fear of harassment or reprisals.

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We urge the international community to continue engaging Nigerian authorities to ensure full implementation of their constitutional and international human rights obligations, including commitments to respect, protect, promote, and fulfil fundamental rights, and to adopt sustainable, rights-based responses to insecurity that prioritise justice, accountability, and the protection of victims over impunity and repression.