His Excellency General Ibrahim Babangida
President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces
Office of the President
State House
Abuja
Nigeria

Vienna, 19 August 1993

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), representing over 2000 journalists and editors from leading newspapers, magazines and broadcasting organizations and news agencies in 68 countries, protests most strongly at the signing on 16 August 1993 of two decrees limiting press freedom in Nigeria.

IPI is informed that Decree 48 prohibits the circulation of at least 15 newspapers and magazines published by six media houses, including the Concord Group of Newspapers, owned by Chief Moshood Abiola, winner of the June presidential elections, which were annulled. The second decree against the press, Decree 43, prescribes new regulation guidelines for newspapers. All newspaper publishers must re-register with the newly-formed Newspaper Registration Board and pay a registration fee of 250,000 Naira (US$ 12,000), or they can be fined and imprisoned. We also understand that the decree imposes a fine or prison term for anyone who publishes a “falsehood or rumour.”

Following closely on the heels of the Treasonable Offences Decree, which states that anyone who is judged to have disrupted the “general fabric of the country or any part of it” in speech or writing is liable to be sentenced to death, the two decrees are regarded as yet another attempt by your Government to silence the press.

IPI considers the banning of the 15 newspapers to be in clear violation of the individual’s right to “seek, receive and impart information through any media”, as guaranteed by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The maintenance and fostering of an independent, pluralistic and free press is essential to the development of democracy in Nigeria. Independent news media must be allowed to operate without being restricted by economic or political pressures. IPI therefore demands the immediate repeal of the decrees, as well as any system of registration which restricts the opportunity to publish. We also urge you to allow the country’s independent press to publish without further obstruction.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director