Digital surveillance has been discovered to be a threat to press freedom in Nigeria and several West African countries. This is done by exploiting vulnerable laws and employment of advanced technology to monitor and harass journalists. Eti-Inyene Akpan, a photojournalist, having been a victim of police brutality during his undergraduate days, was present at the ENDSARS protest in October 2020. He documented all the happenings at the protest through pictures and videos, admitting in his post that “Even when the peaceful protesters raised the Nigerian flag, they still shot at them.” Consequently, he was being haunted by unknown people and had to flee the country until February 2021.
There is similar situation in Benin Republic. It was discovered that the Beninese police invaded the home of Casimir Kpedjo, an editor of the La Nouvelle Economie (an online newspaper), and arrested him after scanning the content on his computer and copying data from it. Asides Sossou, two other Beninese journalists, Patrice Gbaguidi and Hervé Alladé, were sentenced to prison in November 2021 over alleged violations of the digital code of the Republic by publishing their report of a public official’s alleged wrong act on social media. According to Amnesty International, the digital code of Benin is used to prevent press freedom.
Pegasus monitors private communications under national security’s guise.
Also in Ghana, federal authorities are treating journalists like criminals under the guise of cybercrime laws. In this West African country, the military-grade cyber-surveillance system, Pegasus, has been implemented to monitor the private communications of persons. The country is also alleged to have acquired phone-hacking equipment from foreign countries in 2019. Pegasus is capable of copying sent and received messages, harvesting pictures and recording phone conversations, secretly filming an individual through his/her phone camera and activating microphones to record non-call conversations. The Pegasus software is marketed and licensed to governments across the world with the pretense of safeguarding national security and public safety.
The President of Gambia Press Union, Muhammed Bah, asserted that journalists in the country are threatened by digital surveillance as a result of a legal and advanced technological framework that empowers security agencies. According to Article 138 of the Gambia Information Communications Act, national security agencies and investigative authorities have the power to spy, intercept and store communications for the purpose of surveillance with no adequate judicial oversight. The case is the same in Guinea where journalists are arrested with the seizure of their equipment; Mali where media practitioners suffer under digital surveillance tools; Senegal where new laws have been enacted to help the government monitor citizens’ communications; and Togo where journalists’ phones are targeted for spyware surveillance before arrest.
Nigeria has greatly invested in surveillance equipment since 2014.
At 2019, Nigerian military personnel forcefully collected phones and computers at Daily Trust’s offices in Abuja and Maiduguri, carrying out forensic search on them with the aim of finding out Daily Trust’s sources. In 2020, it was discovered that Nigeria’s Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) had acquired an equipment, since 2015, that helps them monitor phone conversations. Since 2014, Nigeria has massively invested in acquiring surveillance equipment for the country’s security agencies — tools which are usually targeted at journalists.
Two Nigerian journalists, Gidado Shuiab and Alfred Olufemi, were arrested by the police over a News Digest report. The police were alleged to have bugged the phone of Adebowale Adekoya, a former News Digest employee, who led them to Shuiab’s residence. After achieving the arrest of Shuiab and Olufemi, they charged them with criminal conspiracy and defamation. The same scheme was used to arrest Fejiro Oliver, publisher of Secret Reporters, in 2017. The surveillance employed by security agencies is oftentimes backed by the law. In Nigeria, the constitution assures citizens’ right to privacy and emboldens the press to hold the government accountable. However, other laws are existent to ensure possibility for the government to acquire personal information for diverse reasons.
Act permits authorities to get people’s info from service providers.
According to the Nigerian Communications Act, network service providers are mandated to cooperate with authorities for prevention of crime and protection of national security. The Cybercrime Act also gives law enforcement agents the power to acquire subscriber information from service providers. A court order also accepted interception of electronic communications for a criminal investigation. To protect journalists and Nigerians’ rights to digital privacy and internet freedoms, civil society groups have fruitlessly tried to pass a Digital Rights and Freedom Bill. Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, stated that “journalists and human rights defenders play an indispensable role in our societies, and when they are silenced, we all suffer.”
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W/Africa journalists are denied press freedom. – Weak laws and advanced technology are used to spy and harass journalists. – Express your point of view.
The purpose of surveillance will help the government to monitor citizens communications. Investment in the surveillance equipment will help the country’s security and it’s agencies.
Weak laws and advanced technology are used to spy and harass journalists. This will really help to monitor things
It has recently come to light that digital surveillance poses a risk to the independence of the press in Nigeria and numerous other nations in West Africa.
This is achieved by abusing loopholes in the law and making use of cutting-edge technology in order to spy on and intimidate journalists.
It blows my mind that a situation very much like that exists in Benin Republic. It has come to light that the Beninese authorities broke into the residence of Casimir Kpedjo.
Hervé Alladé was sentenced to prison for breaking the Republic’s digital code by reporting on a public official’s alleged wrongdoing on social media.
Under the cover of legislation pertaining to cybercrime, federal officials are punishing journalists as if they were criminals.
Under the guise of protecting both national security and public safety, the Pegasus program is marketed and licensed to governments all over the world.
Pegasus may discreetly record an individual through their phone’s camera and activate microphones to record conversations that aren’t phone calls, as well as copy sent and received messages, harvest images, and record phone calls.
surveillance equipment will help the country’s security and it’s agencies to know what is going on in the country and know the citizen steps
Nigeria should not forget it is part of the west African states. So we shouldn’t deny those journalists access to be news entry in Nigeria.
The idea of putting up surveillance camera is good but it should not be misused to the extent of depriving people especially the journalists their lawful right in every situation that may occur.
It is very unfortunate that Africa countries journalist are still passing through all this harassment and intimidations from the government in Africa which can not happen in the civilized country.
The West Africa journalist are facing these challenges because there are no law protecting them against such act. We need an international strong law to be enacted that will protect them against such harassment.
The denial of press freedom in west Africa is a prove of that West Africa is still backward and are not ready for change. Addendum due to their illicit act that their not ready to let it go public they’re ready to use any form of technology to fight any journalist that try to expose them. The journalist need an international law that protect them against such harassment.
The government and its agencies will benefit from having access to surveillance technology in order to better monitor the country and track the whereabouts of its citizens.
Sad to say, governments in Africa are still intimidating and harassing journalists, something that would never happen in a civilized society.
Because of the lack of legislation safeguarding journalists in West Africa, they are being targeted. A robust international legislation is required to shield them from such intimidation.
The purpose of surveillance will assist the government to monitor citizens conversations. Investing in surveillance equipment will benefit the nation’s agencies for security.
Although installing surveillance cameras is a wonderful concept, it should not be abused to deny anybody, particularly journalists, their legal rights in any given circumstance.