The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has said no journalist has been incarcerated under the Bola Tinubu administration for practising responsible journalism.
According to a statement on Friday, the Minister spoke in Abuja during a press briefing organised by his ministry in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Environment and Ecological Management, and the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organisation to commemorate this year’s World Press Freedom Day.
Idris said, “I have not seen somebody in the life of this administration, for example, who has been put in jail, or who has gone into exile as a result of press freedom.
“We knew what has happened in this country in the past. Some decades ago, we know that you have to leave this country to be able to report. I can tell you that the press in Nigeria is largely free but that freedom will further be consolidated if honesty and transparency are upheld in the manner that we report
“As a ministry and government, we provided the most unfettered access to journalists and provided the enabling environment that has continued to encourage the Nigerian media to grow in leaps and bounds”.
Idris added that while the media remained largely free in Nigeria, he described the spread of falsehood and misinformation as irresponsible journalism which he said cannot be equated with press freedom.
