FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT, OFFICIAL SECRET ACT AND PRESS FREEDOM IN 21ST CENTURY NIGERIA: HOW FREE IS THE PRESS?

Fidelis Mmaduabuchi Oduah

Abstract


This research examined the Official Secret Act of 1962, the Freedom of Information Act of 2011 as well as some other relevant laws bordering on press freedom in Nigeria. The research, using the qualitative research method, found that while the Official Secret Act was restrictive in nature, the Freedom of Information Act appeared to be the long awaited messiah in view of its supposed liberal couching and content. The research, however, discovered that even with the enactment of the Freedom of Information law and the passage of same by the National Assembly into an Act, it is not yet uhuru for the Nigerian press, as their supposed freedom to free access to and publication of information is still gagged and fettered not only by various successive governments of the day but, most pathetically, the same laws that ought to be the saviour. The work finally recommended, among others, a revisit to the enabling laws on press freedom in Nigeria in order to extinguish, through amendments, all exclusionary and limiting clauses in them which are hampering the freedom of the press in Nigeria.

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