In a midterm assessment report on the first two years of President Bola Tinubu’s administration in office released yesterday, Media Rights Agenda (MRA) decried an alarming escalation of attacks on media freedom, civic expression, and human rights, particularly through the misuse of the Cybercrime Act by law enforcement agencies to silence or punish journalists and critics of government.

It called on the media community, civil society, judiciary, National Assembly, International Assembly and International community to pressure the government to undertake reforms that uphold media freedom and the broader right to freedom of expression and democratic values in Nigeria.

In a statement, MRA said these incidents include 61 cases (43.26 per cent) were perpetrated by operatives of Nigeria Police, while the Department of State Services (DSS) was responsible for seven (seven) cases (4.96 per cent), with the two agencies collectively accounting for nearly half of all documented violations of media rights and freedom of expression across the country over the last two years.

It argued that the government bears legal responsibility for all of these incidents in accordance with principles of the declaration of principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa, which holds that states are liable for the conduct of law enforcement, security, intelligence, military and other personnel which threatens, undermines, or violates the safety of journalists and other media people.