Fear, intimidation, battle for press freedom in Nigeria

By Uzair Adam On Nov 8, 2025

intimidation, press freedom, Nigeria — Fear, intimidation, battle for press freedom in Nigeria

A rising wave of harassment, arrests, and intimidation of journalists across Nigeria is fuelling concerns that the country’s democratic space is shrinking fast. New evidence suggests that those charged with protecting the rule of law are now among the biggest violators of media freedom.

Two major investigations released recently — by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) and the Media Rights Agenda (MRA) — reveal disturbing patterns of abuse, showing how state institutions and political actors continue to weaponise security agencies against journalists.

SolaceBase reports that at the same time, the recent arrests of some reporters in Kano State have made the crisis feel local and immediate, forcing a new debate: how free is the press in Nigeria’s most populous northern state?

Lagos, FCT and Kano: Flashpoints of repression

The WSCIJ’s Shrinking Freedoms: 2024 Journalism and Civic Space Status Report names Lagos, the Federal Capital Territory and Kano as the top locations where journalists and civic actors suffered the most violations last year.

Although the total number of recorded cases declined slightly from 134 in 2023 to 103 in 2024, WSCIJ found that “the environment for press freedom and civic engagement remains fragile and increasingly hostile.”

Over half of all the victims were journalists, with the Nigeria Police implicated in more than 65 percent of all incidents.

The 2024 #EndBadGovernance protests, for instance, saw several journalists detained or harassed for covering demonstrations — a sign, the report said, that “Nigeria’s civic space is being deliberately constrained by coordinated actions of both state and non-state actors.”

When protectors become predators

The Media Rights Agenda’s 2025 study, When Protectors Become Predators, published to mark the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, presents a similarly bleak picture.

MRA’s Deputy Executive Director, Ayode Longe, said those meant to protect citizens — police, intelligence, and military officers — are now among the main perpetrators of rights violations against journalists.

Government officials, he said, were responsible for nearly 74 percent of all recorded attacks between January and October 2025, while the Nigeria Police Force alone accounted for 45 percent.

MRA documented at least 69 separate incidents during the ten-month period, including arrests, detentions, abductions, threats, and media-office invasions — often on spurious grounds such as “defamation” or “cybercrime.”

Kano: A growing fear among journalists

Kano is one of the states where this national trend is more visible, where a series of arrests has left journalists anxious and self-censoring.

Ibrahim Dan’uwa Rano

In late October 2025, police officers at the Zonal Police Headquarters arrested Ibrahim Dan’uwa Rano, presenter of the Hausa-language programme Imalu, after a petition by Abdullahi Rogo, Director-General of Protocol to Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf.

Rano had commented on air that “a certain DG protocol is collecting bribes to grant visitors an audience to his principal.”

He was detained and accused of defamation and operating an online television station without a National Broadcasting Commission licence.

Following nationwide outrage — including condemnations from Amnesty International and the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) — Rano was later released and the petition withdrawn.

Amnesty’s Country Director, Isa Sanusi, called the arrest “bizarre and outrageous,” saying it typified “an ongoing pattern in which the police are misused to target independent media voices.”

CITAD’s Executive Director, Y.Z Ya’u, said it was “a gross abuse of power and a violation of democratic norms.”

Muktar Dahiru

Earlier, in August 2024, Muktar Dahiru, of Pyramid FM Kano, was arrested and secretly charged before a magistrate for allegedly sharing Facebook content offensive to the state government.

He was accused of conspiracy and defamation before being remanded in a correctional facility.

Abdulaziz Aliyu

In September 2024, Abdulaziz Aliyu, presenter of a historical programme on Karama Radio, was detained for more than two hours after being tricked into reporting to the police.

The real complaint concerned an article linked to his programme about the late Emir of Zazzau, not the “stolen phone” case he was told about.

Buhari Abba and Ismail Auwal

In March 2025, Buhari Abba, publisher of Kano Times, and Ismail Auwal, a freelance journalist, were detained for several hours after publishing a report critical of the Kano Commissioner for Information, Ibrahim Waiya.

Amnesty International condemned their arrest as “a blatant attack on press freedom.”

Prominent investigative journalist Jaafar Jaafar, publisher of Daily Nigerian, also decried Rano’s arrest, noting that NBC has no regulatory powers over YouTube channels.

“Police should stop acting like non-state actors who are at the beck and call of politicians,” he said.

‘Dialogue, not detention,’ says Professor Kurfi

According to Professor Mainasara Yakubu Kurfi of the Department of Mass Communication, Bayero University Kano, the repeated arrests of journalists in Kano reveal a dangerous pattern.

“When journalists are harassed or detained for doing their job — questioning power, highlighting excesses, or simply giving voice to the voiceless — it sends a chilling message to the entire profession.

“It discourages investigative reporting, promotes self-censorship, and weakens public accountability. In a democracy, this is a dangerous slope,” he said.

He warned that Section 39 of the Nigerian Constitution and international charters guarantee freedom of expression, yet these rights “ring hollow” when journalists are detained over stories that offend officials.

“Defamation accusations are now being used as a convenient weapon to silence criticism rather than as a legitimate path to redress,” he added.

He further added that, “The government should see the media not as an adversary but as a partner in governance. Dialogue, not detention, should be the guiding principle.”

Professor Kurfi urged legal reforms to decriminalise defamation and capacity-building for both journalists and public officials to foster mutual respect.

“A free press is not an enemy of the state; it is its mirror. When that mirror is shattered or silenced, governance loses its reflection, and democracy its light,” he said.

Government denies crackdown

Officials in Kano insist that no media crackdown exists.

When he hosted the new leadership of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Correspondents’ Chapel in July 2025, the Governor’s spokesperson, Sanusi Bature Dawakin Tofa, reaffirmed what he called the administration’s “unwavering commitment to press freedom.”

“Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf is media-friendly and will continue to welcome constructive criticism that promotes good governance,” Dawakin Tofa said.

Despite the assurances, many journalists in the state remain sceptical, pointing to repeated detentions and petitions by top officials as proof of a widening gulf between rhetoric and reality.

The bigger picture

Taken together, the reports by WSCIJ and MRA, the arrests in Kano, and the testimonies of practitioners like Professor Kurfi show a consistent pattern that Nigeria’s press is under siege, and the climate of impunity is deepening.

Both watchdog organisations warn that without urgent reform — stronger protections for journalists, police accountability, and clearer legal safeguards — Nigeria risks normalising the criminalisation of journalism.

Until that happens, every arrest, every summons, and every night a journalist spends in detention will continue to dim the light of democracy