“From Press Freedom to People’s Freedom: Activating Citizenship for Human Rights, Development, Security, and Peace”
Event: The Nation Journalism Foundation World Freedom Day 2026 – Convening with broad Theme: Shaping a Future at peace: promoting press freedom for human rights, development and security
Keynote Speech
Introduction: The responsibility of the keynoter and acknowledgement of those who pay the price for our freedoms
Distinguished guests, respected colleagues, leaders across media, civil society, governance, private sector, and security, I bring you warm greetings and sincere appreciation.
I want to thank The Nation Journalism Foundation for the honour of this invitation. I am particularly moved by the intentional effort to facilitate my virtual participation in what is primarily a physical gathering. This decision reflects more than mere logistical flexibility; it reflects the very foresight and technological embrace we need to expand the reach of our message. Having convened and curated over a hundred such gatherings in my career, I take this podium very seriously. I understand and fully embrace the responsibility that comes with delivering a keynote—to set direction, to elevate thinking, and to unify purpose.
I acknowledge the leadership of The Nation Journalism Foundation, the Chairperson, Prof. Adebayo Williams, Chairman, Board of Trustees, The Nation Journalism Foundation (tNJF), represented by Mr. Lawal Ogienagbon, Secretary, Board of Trustees, the Nation Editor-in-Chief, Mr. Victor Ifijeh, and all distinguished speakers – Professor Abigail Ogwezzy-Ndisika, Director, Institute of Continuing Education (ICE), University of Lagos; Mr. Lekan Otufodunrin, Executive Director, Media Career Development Network (MCDN); Mr. Babajide Kolade-Otitoju, Director of News, TVC Communications Limited; CP Tijani Fatai, Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command; as well as other guests and participants.
Before we dive into the mechanics of theory, policy and practice, let us centre ourselves on the human cost of our profession. I also pay tribute to Nigerian journalists, especially those working in high-risk environments. I acknowledge those who have faced harassment, arbitrary detention, intimidation, censorship, and, in some cases, the ultimate price, simply for doing their jobs. Their courage is lived daily and often under-recognised. It is important that we name that reality, because any meaningful conversation about press freedom must begin with those who bear its cost.
Recent cases include Mohammed Adamu of Albarka Radio, assaulted by police in Bauchi; Musa Mikail of the Nigerian Television Authority, attacked in Niger State; journalists teargassed in Abuja during a political event; the attack on Allwell Ene of Naija FM in Port Harcourt; and public threats against Seun Okinbaloye of Channels Television by Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. These cases must be seen as indicative of a pattern that demands attention rather isolated incidents.
Nelson Mandela – South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, and first Black president of South Africa, reminder to us during his 1994 speech to the International Press Institute Congress –
“A critical, independent and investigative press is the lifeblood of any democracy. The press must be free from state interference. It must have the economic strength to stand up to the blandishments of government officials. It must have sufficient independence from vested interests to be bold and inquiring without fear or favour. It must enjoy the protection of the constitution, so that it can protect our rights as citizens.”
Our theme today Shaping a Future at Peace: Promoting Press Freedom for Human Rights, Development and Security, and my adaptation of it, From Press Freedom to People’s Freedom: Activating Citizenship for Human Rights, Development, Security and Peacare ambitious, perhaps impossible for a 30-minute keynote. I will therefore attempt to offer reflections and questions that can guide our thinking, while pointing us towards action that matches the urgency embedded in these themes.
The Global and Local Crisis: A Systemic Regression
We gather at a time when press freedom faces unprecedented “systemic regression” and strain globally and locally. According to Reporters Without Borders, global press freedom has declined to one of its lowest levels in decades, with more than half of countries now falling into “difficult” or “very serious” categories. The global environment for journalism is becoming increasingly hostile, shaped by economic pressure, political interference, technological disruption, and declining trust.
Local data supports this pattern of global decay. The WSCIJ’s 2024 Journalism and Civic Space Guard Report, Shrinking Freedoms,, documented 103 civic space violations. Shockingly, 81 of these involved state actors—the very people sworn to protect the constitutional order. The 2024 Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) Openness Index scores Nigeria at a mere 50.51 percent, a failing grade for a democracy. By the end of 2025, the Media Rights Agenda report, The Reign of Impunity, documented 86 attacks on journalists and citizens.
We must be honest: threats against the press intensify during elections and periods of civic participation. This suggests that in the eyes of the powerful, the press is an obstacle to be cleared rather than a partner in democracy.
Redefining Press Freedom: Beyond the State
A conceptual framework for press freedom defines it as an interdependent system where legal, political, economic, sociocultural, and safety contexts determine media autonomy and its ability to act as a democratic watchdog. It centres on independence from government control, ensuring a free marketplace of ideas, promoting diverse ownership, and protecting journalists’ ability to report without fear of repression.
Press freedom has never been a fixed idea. It has evolved, sometimes quietly, sometimes under pressure, from a narrow insistence on freedom from state control to a broader and more demanding expectation of freedom for society.
At its earliest articulation, press freedom was rooted in libertarian thought. Think of John Milton, John Locke, and John Stuart Mill. It was considered a tradition that argued for a free marketplace of ideas where truth would emerge if the state simply stayed out of the way. It was a necessary foundation, particularly in contexts where censorship defined the relationship between power and the press. Press Freedom itself is derived from clear provisions of the constitution.
Over time, however, it became clear that the absence of control does not automatically produce public good. The conversation shifted. The Hutchins Commission reframed the idea, emphasising that freedom must come with responsibility. The press, in this view, must be both free and accountable. It must inform, represent diverse voices, and serve the public interest. This is where the language of social responsibility takes root.
Alongside this, the watchdog role gained prominence. Scholars like Vincent Blasi, Professor Emeritus of Civil Liberties at Columbia Law School, emphasised that the press is not merely a platform for ideas, but an institution designed to check power. In fragile democracies and contested civic spaces, this function becomes even more pronounced. The press interrogates power.
The marketplace of ideas still holds relevance, echoed in the thinking of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., but it must now operate within a broader understanding of responsibility, accountability, and societal impact.
But I want to propose a shift in our conceptual framework. Press freedom is not a privilege reserved for journalists; it is a derivative of the fundamental freedoms of the people. It is not complete when a story is published; it is only complete when that information enables a citizen to act. Press freedom is, in essence, People’s Freedom. As the theme of this lecture shows, journalism is not an endeavour in isolation. It exists for the purpose of strengthening democracy.
Press Freedom: The Safeguard for Human Rights
Press freedom is deeply connected to the broader ecosystem of human rights. Data from UNESCO and other sources shows a strong correlation between press freedom and the protection of fundamental rights. Societies that suppress the press often suppress their people. Press freedom is not complete when information is published. It is complete when that information enables citizens to engage, question, and act. It is on this basis that the WSCIJ designed the Civic Space Guard programme which positions investigative reporters and journalism as guards of the civic space.
Nigeria’s human rights landscape reflects a gap between legal protections and lived realities. Despite constitutional guarantees and international commitments, violations persist—ranging from arbitrary detention to systemic abuses. Press freedom is the ledger of our human dignity. By September 2025, the National Human Rights Commission recorded over 370,000 complaints. Without a free press, these 370,000 voices would be a silent statistic.
Journalism plays a critical role in bridging this gap. It ensures visibility, amplifies voices, and creates the conditions for accountability.
Consider Peter Nkanga, who won the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting which illustrates this power. It brought attention to abuse, triggered justice, restored freedom, and enabled a return to dignity. His story, The Pregnant Prisoner, a six-part series, exposed the plight of a 16-year-old girl framed for theft by an abusive uncle and forced to give birth in prison. Peter’s reporting did not just “inform”; it liberated. It jailed the exploiter, freed the girl, returned her to school and provided support for her child. The Federal Government suspended accreditation of degree certificates from Benin and Togo Republics, following Daily Nigerian undercover report by Umar Audu in 2024 It also sacked civil servants with certificates from both countries.
When we protect the press, we protect the girl in that prison cell. We protect the 54,000 people currently in pre-trial detention. Information is, as Kofi Annan the seventh Secretary General of the United Nations, said, liberating.
Press Freedom: The Catalyst for Inclusive Development
Nigeria’s development trajectory reflects both potential and paradox. We saw growth to over $423 billion by 2023, yet poverty deepened to 38.9%. This is “growth without inclusion.” Economic growth has not translated proportionately into improved living conditions for many citizens.
In this context, journalism becomes essential. Information is a public good. Without it, citizens cannot make informed decisions about their lives or engage meaningfully with governance. Investigative stories such as Deadly Portions: Nigeria’s Herbal Gin Nightmare, a 2014 three-part by Olatunji Ololade and Olukunle Akinrinade exposed harmful products and protected public health. Sharon Ijasan’s reporting aired on TVC on basic education in 2018 led to the rebuilding of the Bethel Primary School Ikorodu where children learned under trees by the Lagos State Government within seven months. Journalism is beyond stories it is a proven interventionist strategy for development.
Development is the expansion of freedoms, as Amartya Sen, the Indian economist and philosopher who in 1998, he received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics, argued. But freedoms cannot expand in the dark. Journalism provides the knowledge base for development.
Press Freedom as the Infrastructure of Peace and Security
Nigeria’s security context is currently stretched to a breaking point. By late 2025, reports indicated over 400 people kidnapped in a single month. Defence spending has reached 5.9 trillion naira, yet the challenge remains systemic. Here is the foundational truth: Press freedom is a necessity for security. It is often treated as a luxury reserved for stable societies, but it is one of the conditions that makes stability possible. Independent media acts as an “early warning mechanism.” It identifies the smoke before the fire erupts.
A recent study by the Costs of War project at the Watson Institute shows that conflicts in our time are becoming deadlier for journalists than at any point in modern history. Closer to home in Nigeria, the reality is equally complex. Conflicts in the North, the Middle Belt, and other regions are often underreported, not because they lack importance, but because of constraints in resources, safety, and access.
These realities should concern us deeply because they signal a crisis beyond journalism. They point to a broader societal vulnerability. The press freedom that will address our security challenges must also address issues of reach, language, socio-economic, cultural, context, and community presence. For socio-economic and cultural context for instance our journalism must go beyond speaking about budgets for ammunition and recruitment of more soldiers to spotlight the connection between forced child marriage and the proliferation of children who are raised or mostly not raised by their child-mother and the recruitment of child soldiers amongst other ramifications of the conflict.
I recall attending a presentation early in my career by Professor Umar Pate, the immediate past Vice Chancellor of the Federal University Kashere. He showed a map of Nigeria’s “news deserts”, that is vast areas uncovered by Nigerian media where citizens instead listen to foreign government media from neighbouring countries or the West. He warned that citizens disconnected from their own national narrative are the primary casualties and eventually, the primary drivers of conflict.
His work highlighted that the media has a dual capacity to facilitate positive change or to contribute to conflict, depending on its reach and approach. Many years later, despite the increase in media organisations, significant gaps remain. Efforts such as those by WSCIJ under its Collaborative Media Engagement for Inclusivity and Accountability (CMEDIA) to support 26 news media and media support organisations are steps in the right direction, but much more remains to be done.
We mostly currently report on the North, the Middle Belt, South-South and South-East, other conflict areas or the borderlands as numbers of causalities because of safety risks or resource constraints. Our reasons are legitimate, but the consequence of neglect remains the same. We are creating a vacuum that misinformation and insurgency are happy to fill. Journalism is preventive security.
Confronting the Realities of Our Time
We are operating in an era of profound information disruption. Misinformation and disinformation spread rapidly, amplified by digital platforms and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. This makes credible journalism more important than ever. Journalism must do more than inform; it must also provide clarity, context, and trust. At the same time, sustainability remains a major challenge. Economic pressures threaten editorial independence and limit capacity.
In September 2022, I was at the Columbia University to speak at the International Press Institute (IPI) World Congress which held in New York. Part of that engagement included a session at the New York Times head office in New York. The office premises of the New York Times is a sprawling 52-story (The Times occupies the lower 28 floors), 1,046-foot-tall skyscraper building, designed by Renzo Piano a notable Italian architect. I was awed as I stepped into a massive foyer with a full concierge team complement. The scale, resources, and infrastructure available there stand in stark contrast to many newsrooms in Nigeria and across Africa. The understanding that resources control the capacity for narratives is long established
Legal and digital restrictions further complicate the landscape. The misuse of cybercrime laws and surveillance technologies continues to threaten press freedom.
Activating Citizenship: The – Report Until Something Happens – R.U.S.H. Model
The current dispensation mandates us to move beyond crisis reporting to strategic engagement. I say this as someone who has led at least 15 media monitoring research efforts in my bid to design interventions that contribute to improving the capacity of the news media to play its significant role in democracy and society. I have shared my findings at many meetings but due to time, I will summarise a constant thread in all the reports in – gaps in strategy.
This is the essence of the R.U.S.H. model, Report Until Something Happens which I built over 15 years ago and been improving ever since. It is a strategy that recognises and enables the ecosystems that makes journalism credible, relevant and therefore trusted. These ideas have always existed, what RUSH does is to systemise it. It calls for persistence, depth, and impact. To report with courage, consistency and nuance. Move from episodic or reactive stories to sustained, evidence-based reporting. Truth told once is a whisper; truth told consistently is a clarion call. To understand systems behind stories. Don’t just report what happened; interrogate why it happened. Who benefits? What system allowed the theft or the abuse? Insight drives change. To sustain pressure for accountability. One story rarely changes a nation. Transformation requires follow-ups and collaborations. The press must stay in the room long after the headlines fade. We must hold power to account until change happens.
When we R.U.S.H., we treat our stories as the beginning of the cycle, a means to an end not an end.
We must confront the “mammoth anomalies” of our time. I was at the IPI Congress in Abuja last year, when the Vice President of Nigeria promised to “speak with” governors who were harassing journalists. We all clapped. But upon reflection, that moment was flawed. Why must a Vice President “appeal” to governors to respect the law? Press freedom is not a concession given by the government; it is an oath they swore to uphold.
Press freedom finds its fullest expression in the activation of citizenship. Journalism must move beyond publication to sustained engagement. We must approach the issues with a clear understanding that the responsibility is shared but the media must lead the change in desires. Media organisations must strengthen ethics, invest in safety, mobilise resources and embrace collaboration.
Governments must create an enabling environment and recognise that protecting journalists is fundamental to democracy.
Citizens must engage actively, support credible media, and resist misinformation.
What must be done?
- For Governments: Move from suspicion and promises to dialogue that is followed by action and a recognition of the protection of press freedom as a duty. Protecting journalists is not a favour to the media; it is a duty to the state.
- For Media Organisations: We must invest in a National Framework for Media Sustainability, Independence, and Protection – The WSCIJ published a statement yesterday advancing this thought. We must ensure fair value for content and safeguard our newsrooms against the malicious use of AI.
- For Citizens: Recognise that an attack on the press is an attack on your own freedom. Support credible media. Verify before you share.
- Civil society organisations and other support groups – Engage without politicising the issues. Engage honestly.
In the last ten years have been asked the question – What is the future of journalism? on many stages and places my answer has remained the same – it is local, it is collaborative, and it is digital or innovative. I believe we can say the same for shaping the future of peace through press freedom.
How does this look practically for an organisation like – Vintage Press Limited publishers of The Nation Newspaper and promoters of the Nation Journalism Foundation?
It looks like a workshopping effort by the leaders of the initiative that is focused on reflecting on the Why? And So what? of the 5 Ws and H (Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How), that we learnt as part of foundational training for journalism. How do you cover education for instance? Why do you cover it the way you do? So what? I understand dedicated reflection is a luxury for journalists, but as someone who has spent two decades reflecting on behalf of journalism, I must encourage you – reflection is rewarding including for the bottom line.
It looks like looking at all our titles and asking the same set of questions. It looks like ‘adopting a state or two and a cause and dedicating strategically to reporting in it until something happens.
It looks like consciously strengthening the coverage of local journalism and collaborating with other stakeholders to deploy the many talents that this organisation must support the rapid and urgent investment that our local journalism requires to support the democracy of our dreams. One of the major pillars of RUSH is that impact happens at the intersection of communities of interest and communities of geography. And that since democracy is local, and development is local, the journalism that must support both must be equally local. Nigeria most of Africa is at a deficit in this regard, and we must see to it that it significantly changes in the next five years.
It looks like, The Nation leadership having a conversation with its owners about providing adequate guardrails between business, politics and its journalism to preserve its identity, audience trust and its relevance.
It looks like constantly asking if we are curious enough about technology to adopt the tools, infrastructure and new ways of thinking to improve the information distribution, storytelling, verification, presentation and the journalism whilst preserving the right to hold technology and its promoters accountable.
It looks like recommitting to the zero tolerance for harassment of journalists and the press, including the solidarity, network and collaborations that protects the sanctity and independence of the press and stands to challenge powers that seek to normalise the harassment of any form or shape especially through the judiciary.
It looks like the Nation Journalism Foundation converting the newspaper’s reach for media and civic education that activates interest in media, politics, governance, and development in a way that keeps politicians on their toes.
Closing Reflection & Final Charge – The Two Forces of Light
Mark Twain once observed that there are two forces that bring light to the world—the sun and the press.
Today, the sun rises over a Nigeria at a crossroads—marked by a youthful population, digital expansion, and evolving democratic landscapes. We can either allow the pressures of our time to weaken our information systems, or we can harness them to build a resilient media ecosystem that shapes our future.
The future of peace will not be built only in government chambers; it will be shaped through truth-telling, accountability, and active citizenship. If we truly desire a future at peace, then we must invest in press freedom as a foundational system because a society that protects truth secures its future.
Let us therefore commit, deliberately and collectively, to strengthening journalism, protecting journalists, and engaging as responsible citizens. A society that commits to reporting until something happens is a society that produces change. Let us build a Nigeria where information is trusted, voices are heard, and institutions are accountable. A Nigeria where truth is safe—and those who tell it are safer.
Thank you.
