Goodluck Jonathan

Lagos, Nigeria, April 19, 2013--Two Nigerian journalists and their employer have been charged with forgery in connection with their publication of a memo reported to be from President Goodluck Jonathan, according to news reports. If convicted, the journalists could face life terms.

Lagos, Nigeria, April 10, 2013--Nigerian police should stop harassing the staff of the leading independent daily Leadership over a story critical of President Goodluck Jonathan, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On Monday, police in the capital Abuja summoned four Leadership journalists for questioning over an April 3 story entitled "Outrage Trails Presidential Directive on Tinubu, APC," according to the newspaper. The story reported on public criticism of Jonathan following Leadership's publication a day earlier of a purported presidential memorandum in which Jonathan allegedly laid out plans to increase petrol prices and sabotage a merger of opposition political parties ahead of the 2015 elections by targeting their leaders' business interests.

Protesters in Nigeria are not only angry at their government's New Year's Day decision to eliminate a fuel subsidy -- they are also upset about news media coverage of the citizens' movement, dubbed "Occupy Nigeria," and have taken their protests to local media outlets.

There is a deserved celebration in the Nigerian media over the recently passed Freedom of Information Act, which provides citizens with broad access to public records and information held by a public official or institution.  It is the climax of an 11-year struggle to pass such a law in the Nigerian parliament. Indeed, the call for such a law was first made under military rule, in 1993, when the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Civil Liberties Organisation, and the Media Rights Agenda began to clamor for it.