Nigeria

Twenty-three years ago, on October 19, 1986, the sun quite suddenly set at noon. In the brutal darkness, we lost Dele Giwa, just two short years after he and I, along with two other professional journalists, launched Nigeria’s first newsmagazine, Newswatch.

We've launched a new section of our Web site, and we hope you take a few minutes to read some of its pages. There is one, for example, on Russian reporter Natalya Estemirova, who dared to examine human rights crimes in Chechnya. Another is devoted to Francisco Javier Ortiz Franco, a Tijuana newspaper editor who exposed the workings of the Arellano Félix drug cartel. They are among the 758 journalists killed for their work since 1992. Our new database memorializes these women and men, most of whom were local reporters, photographers, producers, and editors who confronted the powerful or took unpopular positions.

More than two weeks have passed since the cold-blooded killing of Bayo Ohu, assistant news editor and political reporter for the Lagos, Nigeria-based The Guardian. The 45-year-old, soft-spoken workaholic opened the door to his home early on Sunday, September 20, as he prepared for church. According to eyewitnesses and local reports, five gunmen and one female ringleader shot Ohu repeatedly in his doorway while his children hid inside. One of his children told The Guardian that from her hiding place she heard one of the men shouting in Yoruba, “Olori Buruki e ti ku”—“The fool is dead.” Curiously, the killers took only Ohu’s laptop and cell phones.

New York, June 29, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on national police Inspector General Mike Okiro to investigate reports that Delta state police harassed six journalists and attacked at least three of them last week. The Nigerian Union of Journalists Delta State Chapter said police attached to the state Ministry of Land prevented the journalists from reporting on the June 23 demolition of several buildings on government land. 

New York, October 31, 2008--Nigeria's national security agency today confirmed it is holding a U.S.-based Nigerian blogger in the capital, Abuja. This is the second online journalist held for questioning in the past two weeks.

New York, October 16, 2008--Nigerian journalist Eiphraim Audu was shot by six unknown gunmen near his home on Wednesday in Lafia, central Nigeria, local journalists and the Nigerian Union of Journalists told CPJ.

October 2008

CPJ interviewed documentary filmmaker Andrew Berends and producer Aaron Soffin at CPJ's headquarters in New York. Berends spent 10 days in the custody of Nigeria's State Security Services in Port Harcourt, from August 31 to September 9. He had been in the country for six months working on his film "Delta Boys." Soffin worked to get Berends released.

CPJ: Tell us about your film.

BERENDS: The film focuses on the militants in the region, but it's really dealing with what it's like living in the Niger Delta, a region that produces enormous amounts of oil. Billions of dollars of oil get pumped out of the Niger Delta, but in some places the people live in abject poverty. There is a lot of frustration over that. The militants claim they are fighting for more resource control. And there's a huge amount of corruption within the local government and then also among some of the militants who are supposedly fighting against that.

New York, September 18, 2008--The Nigerian government should immediately lift its suspension of Channels TV and release four staff members being held by State Security Services, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Security agents closed the Lagos and Abuja offices of Channels TV on Tuesday after the station mistakenly aired a fabricated report that President Umaru Yar'Adua might step down for health reasons, according to Channels TV Chairman John Momoh and the Lagos International Press Centre.