2014: A tragic year for journalists worldwide

In Nigeria, the military acting on the orders of the Federal Government in June this year, clamped down on newspapers across the country for almost a week. Soldiers in some parts of the country, including Minna, Ibadan, Kaduna, Kano, Jos and Abuja seized and prevented the circulation of copies.As early as 7 am, they stormed […]

In Nigeria, the military acting on the orders of the Federal Government in June this year, clamped down on newspapers across the country for almost a week. Soldiers in some parts of the country, including Minna, Ibadan, Kaduna, Kano, Jos and Abuja seized and prevented the circulation of copies.
As early as 7 am, they stormed distribution centre of the newspapers in different parts of the country and prevented newspapers  from being distributed. Vendors and distributors were also harassed and  large volumes of the papers seized.  Circulation vans of Daily Trust, The Nation and Leadership newspapers  were intercepted at the various military check points, while drivers and their cargoes were detained.
To justify the military offensive on newspapers, on June 6, 2014 the Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade, told the world that newspaper distribution channels may have been infiltrated by some persons to transport “materials with grave security implications.”
The soldiers initially targeted the  Daily Trust, Leadership , The Nation and Punch but later extended the siege to all major newspapers in the country, seizing consign¬ments of newspapers meant to be sold to the general pub¬lic. The crackdown lasted throughout the week, causing huge economic losses to the publishing houses.
The Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) decried the harassment at an emergency meeting in Abuja on June 7. During the meeting with representatives of vendors and distributors unequivocally condemned the attack.
According to it, “This assault on freedom of expression through the stoppage of distribution of newspapers is inconsistent with the values of any democratic society and the Constitution of The Federal Republic of Nigeria. We therefore call upon the military authorities to lift the siege immediately and call the soldiers to order”.
 But the presidency had insisted the assault was  a necessary security precaution. The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, in defence of the military assault on newspapers distribution in the country said the seizure was necessary to fight the war against Boko Haram insurgency.
Just as the year was drawing to a close, an ex militant leader in the Niger Delta region, Mr. Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo), in one day kidnapped seven journalists while on duty in Delta State. The ‘repentant’ Niger Delta militant leader, popularly known as  Tompolo on November 16, 2014 seized the journalists who had gone to cover the commissioning of the EPZ Project by President Jonathan in the state. They were held for several days and subjected to all forms of torture while held captive. The journalists were only released after the public outcry that greeted their kidnap by the ex militant leader.
On May 30,2014, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), in a letter, directed MDs and CEOS of all broadcasting stations to notify the commission in writing, at least 48 hours, before transmitting a live program.
In the letter signed by Chris Okoyomoh, on behalf of the management, the NBC warned that it would no longer tolerate the repeated abuse currently observed with this genre of program, particularly, inciting, provocative and highly divisive comments frequently served to the public, as live political broadcasts.
Within the year, it  suspended the VISION  FM and other stations it said floated its orders as the regulating authority of the broadcasting industry in the country.
On the foreign scene, at least 60 journalists around the world were killed in 2014, while on the job or because of their work.  The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)  in a report last week said Syria was connected to two of the more horrifying killings of journalists in the outgoing year. It cited the beheadings by the Islamic State group of American freelancers James Foley and Steven Sotloff. Both who had disappeared while reporting on the conflict.
The conflict in Ukraine between the new government and Russian-backed separatists also saw five journalists and two media workers killed. They were the first that the CPJ had recorded in Ukraine since 2001.
It said : An “unusually high proportion, or about one-fourth, of journalists killed in 2014 were international ones, though the overwhelming number of journalists threatened continue to be local. Two journalists for The Associated Press and a freelance translator for the AP were among the toll”.
Some of the journalists killed in 2014 include Anja Niedringhaus, an AP photographer who was shot to death while covering elections in Afghanistan. AP video journalist Simone Camilli and freelance translator Ali Shehda Abu Afash were killed in an explosion at an ordnance dump in the Gaza strip in August.
In addition, AP photographer Franklin Reyes Marrero died in a car accident while returning from an assignment in Cuba. “The CPJ does not count deaths from illness or car or plane crashes unless they were the result of hostile action”, it said.
In the word of John Daniszewski, vice president and Senior Managing Editor for International News for the AP, he said the 2014 was a tragic year for journalists worldwide. “And for our organization in particular. While the casualties stemmed from war and conflict in different parts of the world, they remind us of the daily courage and sacrifices made by professional journalists to bring back the news and information that so many rely on and take for granted,” he said.
The CPJ’s report said the number of journalists killed in 2014 was down from 70 the year before, but the past three years have been the deadliest since the organization started compiling such records in 1992. It added that forty-four percent of the journalists killed were targeted for murder.
It said the conflict in Syria, now well into its fourth year, has been a major factor. The report said at least 17 journalists were killed there this year, with at least 79 killed since the fighting began in 2011. “Syria has never been more dangerous for journalists,” a CPJ research associate, Jason Stern, said in a blog post. He pointed out that while the count of journalists killed in Syria this year is down from 29 last year, the country has become “an information black hole” as journalists flee or stay away.
Also, the fifty days of fighting in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinians over the summer saw at least four journalists and three media workers killed. In Iraq, at least five journalists were killed while covering the fight against the Islamic State group.
The report also pointed out that the first journalist killings in several years in some countries, including Paraguay, where three deaths were recorded are the first since 2007, and Myanmar, where the killing in custody of a freelance journalist was the first death since 2007. CPJ said it is still investigating the deaths of at least 18 other journalists this year.
Three Al Jazeera journalists were sentenced to seven years in jail and one to 10 years by an Egyptian court on charges, including aiding the Muslim Brotherhood and reporting false news. The Three journalists, Mohamed Fahmy, Peter Greste and Baher Mohammed have been held by Egyptian authority for 365 days now. They were arrested on December 29, 2013 while working in Egypt.  Other Al Jazeera journalists who were tried in absentia, including Sue Turton and Dominic Kane, were sentenced to 10 years..