Dapo Olorunyomi
Stakeholders in the media industry have described 2025 as year of impunity against journalists, assault on press freedom and attack on free speech.
Globally, the number of journalists and media workers killed in 2025 stands at 126. An increase in killings in Sudan, Mexico, Ukraine and the Philippines also drove up this year’s total.
According to Chief Executive Officer Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Jodie Ginsberg, “at a time of rising global instability, access to accurate information is more important than ever ー yet journalists continue to be killed in record numbers. In too many cases, those responsible for journalists’ deaths are getting away with murder. Another record year of killings show not enough is being done globally to tackle attacks on the press.”
Israel has killed almost 250 journalists since the Israel-Gaza war began in 2023, more journalists than have been killed by any other nation since CPJ began keeping records in 1992.
Former United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, noted, “reliable information is vital in conflict situations to help affected populations and to enlighten the world. It is unacceptable that journalists pay with their lives for this work. I call on all States to step up and ensure the protection of media workers, in accordance with international law.”
This year, however, Nigeria dropped 10 spots to 122nd in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). RSF links this decline to growing threats to editorial independence.
RSF also attributes the nation’s drop to a “concentration (of media ownership) in the hands of a few private groups close to those in power and individuals with political interests” which it says compromise editorial independence. This trend is described as “particularly notable” in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Cameroon.
To RSF, “the level of governmental interference in the news media is significant. It can involve pressure, harassment of journalists and media outlets, and even censorship. This interference is even stronger during electoral campaigns. Addressing political issues in a balanced way can also be difficult depending on the media outlet’s owner.”
Despite the ranking, media observers believe Nigeria is one of the most dangerous places to practice journalism in West Africa. Journalists are regularly monitored, attacked and arbitrarily arrest.
Recently, Media Rights Agenda (MRA) disclosed government officials are responsible for 74 percent of attacks on journalists in the country, with the Nigeria Police Force accounting for nearly half of these violations,
The 129-page report, titled, “When protectors become predators: The state against Freedom of Expression in Nigeria,” was released to commemorate the 2025 International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists.
The MRA survey, conducted between January 1 and October 31, 2025, found that government officials were responsible for nearly three-quarters of all attacks on journalists and violations of freedom of expression. The Nigeria Police Force was identified as the single worst offender, accounting for 45 percent of the total incidents.
Other perpetrators include operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS), members of the military and paramilitary agencies, and elected or appointed political office holders at both federal and state levels.
According to the report, at least 69 incidents were recorded during the review period, including arbitrary arrests and detention, physical assaults, threats to life, abductions, invasions of media offices, and other forms of harassment and intimidation of journalists performing their legitimate duties.
MRA’s Programme Officer, John Gbadamosi, insisted, “repeated incidents highlight the deteriorating environment for media freedom in Nigeria. The culture of impunity, enabled by government, has emboldened perpetrators, both state and non-state actors, who now attack journalists without fear of consequences.”
In a similar vein, an editorial of September 12, 2025 written in The Guardian called for review of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act in order to rectify provisions that cause controversy in the implementation of the law.
Titled, ‘To flush cybercrime law of ambiguity and enforcement impunity,’ the editorial, in part suggested, ‘the Cybercrimes Act should be further revised to bring it into conformity with clarity, certainty, logic, equity, and justice. Insofar as it partially forayed into the realm of the fundamental right of freedom of expression, the constitutionality of some of its provisions will remain in issue. In the same vein, the raging controversy over the impunity exhibited by law enforcement agents in the course of (purportedly) giving effect to the Act will not abate.
“Further, the circulation of misleading or false information against persons should not be criminalised unless it threatens the territorial integrity of the country. The civil law of tort sufficiently covers the field of defamation.
“Considering the enormous resources and time expended in making constitutional amendments, it would be expected that the Nigerian judiciary would rise to the occasion in deserving cases. Bottom line, the Cybercrime Act should be clinically reviewed and refocused to reflect its original intentions.”
Section 22 of the Constitution says the press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to hold public office holders accountable.
Similarly, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) says everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.But impunity against journalists have continued unabated.
Other attacks on journalists in 2025 include, threats on the life of an Ibadan-based journalist, Tayo Oyeladun of Lagelu FM. According to a post on his Facebook page on January 30, 2025, he disclosed the threat was related to a programme he anchored, tagged: “Bosenlo” after which the Chief Press Secretary to Soun Ogbomoso reached out to one of his senior colleagues to express his grievances over the comments of one of the guests. Since then, he began to receive strange threat calls.
In March 2025, Buhari Abba Rano, Online Editor at Kano Times, and freelance journalist Isma’il Auwal were harassed and detained of by Kano police; the beating of Olatunji Adebayo, a correspondent with The Punch newspaper, in June 2025 and the seizure of his equipment by security operatives while he was covering a protest in Ibadan, Oyo State; the July 2025 harassment of Blessing Okonkwo, a freelance broadcast journalist in Anambra State, who was also assaulted by police officers who accused her of “unauthorised reporting” while she was filming a demolition exercise; detention of Ibrahim Garba, a Daily Trust photojournalist in Kano, who was detained for hours in August 2025 and physically assaulted by political party loyalists while he was covering a campaign rally.
Other attacks are harassment, intimidation, and verbal assault on Ladi Bala, Transport Correspondent of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and former President of the Nigerian Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) by Kayode Opeifa, Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), on August 27, 2025, while she was covering the derailment of a train along the Abuja-Kaduna rail corridor.
He is reported to have disrupted Ms Bala’s live reporting and ordered security operatives to bundle her from the scene, while threatening to report her to security agencies, the Presidency, and NTA management to ensure that she is dismissed; on September 7, 2025, Hassan Mai-Waya Kangiwa was arrested in Kebbi State after he shared a video exposing poor hospital condition; News Anchor at Arise News channel Somtochukwu ‘Sommie’ Maduagwu died when armed robbers, reportedly stormed her apartment in Katampe, Abuja, on September 29, 2025; Adenike Atanda, wife of Sodeeq Atanda, a senior reporter with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) was unlawfully detained alongside their nine-month old baby by men of the Nigeria Police Force in Ikorodu Lagos. The event occurred on December 22nd, 2025.
However, there was something to cheer for the media, as President Bola Tinubu conferred national honours on some practitioners including Bayo Onanuga, Dapo Olorunyomi, Kunle Ajibade, Nosa Igiebor, Ayo Obe, Dare Babarinsa, Olatunji Dare, Seye Kehinde, Uncle Sam Amuka, and others.
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