Abuja, Nigeria, March 26, 2015 - Nigerian military authorities on Tuesday
confined two Al-Jazeera journalists to their hotel room and have forbidden them
from leaving, according to a statement published on Wednesday by the Nigerian
Defense Headquarters and both journalists who spoke to CPJ.
The journalists
were covering a story on military activities in the area as part of
Al-Jazeera's broader election coverage, the broadcaster said.
"Nigerian authorities and the military should understand that the
credibility of the election is dependent in large part on the media, both local
and foreign, being allowed to report freely," said Peter Nkanga, CPJ's
West Africa representative. "We call on the military to release Ahmed
Idris and Mustafa Ali from their hotel, return their camera, and allow every
journalist the freedom to document the electoral process before, during, and
after the vote."
Ahmed Idris, a correspondent for the Qatari-based broadcaster, told CPJ
by phone Wednesday that on Tuesday morning soldiers told him and his colleague,
Mustafa Ali, a cameraman, that they were under orders to forbid the two from
leaving the hotel in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
Idris told CPJ that
when he attempted to leave later on Tuesday, a soldier stopped him. The
journalists, both Nigerian nationals, are staying at the Satus Hotel in
Maiduguri, Borno state, where they have stayed before, the hotel manager told
CPJ. The soldiers also confiscated the journalists' camera, Idris said.
Idris told CPJ that foreign journalists visiting the area often stay at
Satus Hotel, but he and Ali were the only journalists reporting for a foreign
outlet who were there at the time. Several journalists, mostly local, have been
reporting from Yobe, Borno, and other states in northeastern Nigeria, where
military operations against the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram are
ongoing, according to several journalists including Abba Karami, Borno state
chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, who spoke to CPJ.
The Nigerian Defense Headquarters's statement said the
journalists had been restrained in the hotel for loitering "without any
protection, accreditation or due clearance" in an area where military operations
were ongoing. The statement said the two journalists had been "moving
around various locations," including unspecified "restricted"
areas in Yobe and Borno states.
The statement also said, "It will be recalled that foreign
journalists have earlier been cautioned against unauthorised and unprotected
movements around the military operations area. This warning is hereby
reiterated until formally reversed or lifted."
Chris Olukolade, spokesman for the national military, did not respond to
CPJ's calls, text message, or email seeking clarification for the situation.
The Nigerian military has consistently declined CPJ's written and face-to-face
requests to discuss its relationship with the press.
Al-Jazeera issued a statement on Wednesday that
called on Nigerian authorities to release the two journalists. The statement
said the men had just finished "covering a story on the Nigerian forces
fighting Boko Haram in Borno State," which it said was "part of
Al-Jazeera's special coverage on the Nigerian elections." The statement
denied that the journalists were "loitering" and said the two had
"only passed through the restricted areas of Yobe and Borno State to get
to Maiduguri."
Idris told CPJ that he and Ali had obtained accreditation from the
Independent National Electoral Commission before setting out by road from the
capital, Abuja, to Maiduguri, where they arrived on March 19. He told CPJ they
were in Maiduguri to report on events in the state ahead of the upcoming
general elections.
Idris told CPJ that they had never needed any clearance to report from
the northeast before. "From all indications, the military don't want us to
cover elections here," Idris told CPJ.
Kakami, NUJ's Borno state chairman, told CPJ that because the
journalists were both Nigerian citizens, they did not need to obtain clearance
or permission to come into the state. He said that both journalists had done
nothing wrong and had reported from the state in the past.
Both local and international journalists have been targeted in the
run-up to the elections. On February 14, state security agents searched the
home of Tife Owolabi, a Nigerian video journalist for Reuters,
for more than four hours. The agents accused Owolabi of being unpatriotic for
working with foreign media and confiscated his reporting equipment, news reports said.
On
February 10, a cameraman with the state-owned Nigeria Television Authority was
beaten and stabbed in the arm while covering a clash between political parties,
according to news reports. On February 2,
five journalists suffered cuts and bruises and had their bus damaged by a mob
when they fled after a bomb exploded minutes after President Goodluck Jonathan
left a rally, news reports said.
Authorities have also denied visas and accreditation to dozens of
journalists seeking to cover the elections, according to reports. Geoffrey
York, a Johannesburg-based correspondent for the Canadian daily Globe and
Mail, wrote in February on Twitter that at least 40
journalists were blocked from entering the
country.
The Foreign Correspondents Association of Southern Africa issued a statement that said many of
its members had been denied visas or accreditation. On March 19, Colin Freeman,
chief foreign correspondent of the Telegraph, said he had not yet been
given a visa to cover the elections, according to media reports.
The media and opposition parties have accused the military and other
security agencies of partisanship in politics
and complicity in election
rigging ahead of presidential and federal parliamentary elections on March 28
and governor and state parliamentary elections on April 11, according to news reports.
- For more data and analysis on Nigeria, visit CPJ's Nigeria page here.
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