In this edited collection, contributors analyze how the media is navigating Africa's most populous nation, Nigeria, and its mediated democracy. Despite its constitutional role, recognizable as the fourth estate of the realm, the Nigerian media has a history of confronting daunting challenges headlong. This book captures an array of the challenges faced, from British colonialism and military rule to democratic dispensation. Ordinarily, democracy is purposefully streamlined to elevate freedom of expression to an inalienable right and a necessary corollary of democracy. Yet, media freedom in Nigeria has been tortuous and nebulous, and there is a paradoxical difference in how the state relies on the media for partnership while also obstructing accountable journalism that would hold the state and the media itself accountable. The editors provide a poignant outlook of the onerous interactions and dialectics of media and democracy, and the cascading state power. Contributors argue for open democratic deliberations, civic space, and freedom of the press, all rooted in public good. Scholars of journalism, political communication, media studies, and African studies will find this book of particular interest.
Paul Obi is a journalist and research fellow at The Abuja School of Social and Political Thought. Taye C. Obateru is senior lecturer of mass communication at the University of Jos. Sam Amadi is associate professor in the Faculty of Law at Baze University, Abuja.
Table of Contents Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Introduction Paul Obi, Taye C. Obateru and Sam Amadi Chapter 2: Assessing the Legal Protection of Freedom of the Press in Nigeria's Constitutional Democracy Sam Amadi Chapter 3: Media Censorship of Nigerian Presidential Elections: Navigating Candidates, Campaigns and the Monitory Democracy Theory Paul Obi Chapter 4: Who Watches the Watchdog? Ethical Interrogation of Self-Censorship of Nigerian Media Taye C. Obateru Chapter 5: The Shrinking Civic Space: Journalistic Hazards, Risks and Media Resistance to Censorship in Nigeria Bridget Onochie, Lasisi Olagunju, Paul Ogwu and Paul Obi Chapter 6: National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Nigerian Press Council (NPC) and Media Regulation in an Age of Information Fluidity Igomu Onoja Chapter 7: Walking the Tight Rope of National Security: Interrogating Public Interest to Know vs Security Implications of Media Coverage Ibrahim Uba Yusuf, Senator Iroegbu and Brigadier General Sani K. Usman (Rtd) Chapter 8: Technology, Internet, Social Media and the Politics of Online Free Speech in Nigeria Joseph Nwanja Chukwu Chapter 9: Deconstructing the Fourth Estate Ideals and the Quest for Free Speech: A Study of Nigeria's Minister of Information on the Role of the Media Joe Babalola Bankole Chapter 10: Conclusion Taye C. Obateru, Sam Amadi and Paul Obi About the Contributors
"The work explores critical dimensions of freedom and unfreedom, within the context of constitutional democracy, through Nigeria's prism. This is helpful to the expansion of understanding of the increasingly complex concept of liberties, in the spaces and places of democracy; and in the mixed messages of actors within. It is, therefore, a significant entrant into the literature on constitutional democracy, and the shifting question of freedom, which should have otherwise been stable, given the fact that liberty is ideally envisaged in a democracy." -- Abiodun Adeniyi, Baze University
