Responses of Selected Media Houses to the Implementation of Nigeria’s Freedom of Information Act

Abstract

The paper; evaluates the roles played by media houses in the implementation process of Nigerian’s Freedom of Information Act, six years after it was signed into law. It attempts to explore what contributions media houses are making in the implementation process of the Act. Social Responsibility theory of the Press is the theoretical base. The study which is qualitative in nature uses in-depth interview as method of data collection. Executives of three media houses were interviewed. Findings indicate that the selected media houses are not doing much to encourage implementation of the Act. It recommends, among other things, that media houses should encourage the use of the Act by rewarding attempts to use the Act by their reporters, and the media houses should give the reporters the necessary backing in case of denial to access required information.