CONSTITUTIONAL LIMITATIONS OF PRESS FREEDOM IN NIGERIA:

CASES, INDICES AND IMPLICATIONS

Abstract

Press freedom could be likened to leadership. Its absence or presence in any polity is easily noticed. This is not surprising, considering thefact that the concept of press freedom is at the heart of human person/societal development. Unfortunately, most governments around the world pay mere lip service when it comes to expressing the concept of pres freedom on the ground. Even where the constitution "guarantees" press freedo m, there are usually provisions within such constitution to ensure that press freedom is not realised. In an environment of 'govemment-prescribedfreedom, the pres cannot perform its watchdog role. Constitutional limitation result in a situation whereby the press is declared free yet everywhere it is in chains. This has been the Nigerian experience. Our position here is that the government should borrow a leaf from the United States of America where "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech or the press. 11 is this constitutional guarantee that has enabled the American press to achieve peak performance in the words of thefounding father of th eAlfred Friendly Press Fellowship (AFPF), AIFed Friendly (1911 - 1983): "Afree press is the best, the most effective, the most constantly functioning instrument by which a people, a community, a nation looks at its self and finds out who and what it is and what it is doing".