The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked United States President, Donald Trump, to temporarily ban state governors and other senior public officials misusing the criminal justice system to jail journalists, bloggers and activists reporting on allegations of corruption from entering the US.
\nThough SERAP in its open letter to Trump did not list specific Governors or top government officials involved in persecuting journalists, it named Cross River, Abia, Ebonyi, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, and Kaduna as states where the persecution is prevalent.
\nParts of the SERAP open letter to Trump was published on its website and reads:
\nSocio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) sent an open letter to the US President Donald Trump asking him to exercise his constitutional powers \u201cpursuant to the Presidential Proclamations 7750 and 8697 to instruct the US Secretary of State and US Ambassador in Nigeria to temporarily ban Nigerian state governors and other senior public officials misusing the criminal justice system to jail journalists, bloggers and activists reporting on allegations of corruption from entering the US.\u201d
\nSERAP also urged Mr Trump to \u201cuse Presidential Proclamation 8697 (which allows the US Department of State to deny visas to foreign officials, their families and friends) who participate in serious human rights violations and other abuses such as misusing the criminal justice system to jail journalists, bloggers and activists to prevent them from reporting on allegations of corruption and other related cases.\u201d
\nThe letter followed SERAP\u2019s report titled \u201cA Downward Spiral: How Federal and State Authorities are Tightening the Screws on Media Freedom in Nigeria\u201d and launched today in Lagos.
\nIn the letter dated 30 October 2019 and signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organization said: \u201cDemocracy demands \u2018maximum disclosure\u2019 of all government held information, and this won\u2019t happen without respect for media freedom and the citizens\u2019 rights to know. Undue restrictions on media freedom and the right to know would imply nothing short of abrogation of the ideals of democracy and good governance. Citizens\u2019 right to know is vital for social welfare and other human rights.\u201d
\nSERAP also said, \u201cMedia freedom and the right of citizens to know constitute a crucial bulwark of democracy. It is essential for the general progress of a democratic society if people are to effectively monitor their government\u2019s affairs and democratically participate in the running of society, they must have access to government-held information, which the media should be allowed to freely report.\u201d
\nSERAP\u2019s report documents the increasing cases of harassment, intimidation, arbitrary arrests and detention and deaths of journalists, bloggers and other media workers while carrying out their legitimate work.
\nSERAP\u2019s letter read in part: \u201cSpecifically, the report documents cases of attacks on journalists, bloggers and activists reporting on allegations of corruption and related matters in the following states of Nigeria: Cross River state; Abia state; Ebonyi state; Kano state; Jigawa state; Bauchi state; and Kaduna state.\u201d
\n\u201cAlso, 109 journalists were attacked between 2010 and 2015, and several more journalists, bloggers, radio and TV stations and activists have been targeted since 2015. At least 36 attacks on journalists were recorded between January and July 2019 alone, 30 of the attacks happening during the 2019 general elections.\u201d
\n\u201cThe attacks and harassment include arbitrary arrests and detention, physical attacks and even deaths. In 2018, at least 45 radio and TV stations were sanctioned by the authorities on unfounded allegations of breaching some codes of conduct.\u201d
\n\u201cProactive initiatives to protect media freedom and human rights that would invariably contribute to transparency and accountability globally have always been in the best long-term interests of the US. Your application of targeted sanctions would reaffirm US commitments to human rights, and media freedom and help to supplement the criminal justice in Nigeria and be entirely consistent with the US international obligations.\u201d
\n\u201cSERAP believes that your government\u2019s imposition of targeted sanctions against those accused of misusing the criminal justice system to attack, intimidate, harass and jail journalists, bloggers and activists in Nigeria would help to deter other state governments, governors and other senior public officials from limiting the enjoyment of Nigerians\u2019 right to information about what their government is doing in their names.\u201d
\n\u201cSuch sanctions would not violate due process and presumption of innocence principles, as long as the reasons for the sanctions are communicated to those that may be affected, as what is recommended is a temporary travel ban. We argue that the imposition of temporary travel bans on public officials complicit in violation of media freedom and preventing reporting of allegations of corruption is a preventive and not punitive measure.\u201d
\n\u201cSERAP therefore urges you to apply the presidential proclamations 7750 and 8697 as instruments of foreign policy to promote targeted sanctions against state governments, governors and other senior public officials in Nigeria, just as the US has for many years applied targeted sanctions, including imposing travel restrictions on systematic violations of human rights.\u201d
\n\u201cSERAP believes that applying presidential proclamations 7750 and 8697 as recommended would be very helpful to Nigeria\u2019s efforts to protect media freedom, improve transparency and accountability and generally ensure full respect for the human rights of journalists, bloggers and activists across Nigeria.
\nIt would also facilitate equivalent visa bans in other globally desirable locations as well.\u201d
\n\u201cSERAP hopes that you will exercise your constitutional powers to promote human rights, media freedom, transparency and accountability in Nigeria.\u201d
\n\u201cSERAP also notes that Presidential Proclamations 7750 and 8697 underscore the important role of the media in the establishment of legitimate and transparent public institutions to world stability, peace, and development.\u201d
\n\u201cThe proclamations note the US \u2018enduring commitment to respect for human rights and humanitarian law\u2019, which requires that its Government be able to ensure that the US does not become a safe haven for suspected violators of human rights and other abuses. They also aim to help the US authorities to secure peace, promote the rule of law, combat crime and corruption, and strengthen democracies around the globe.\u201d
\n\u201cSignificantly, the Presidential Proclamations underscore that it is in the interests of the United States to take action to restrict the international travel and to suspend the entry into the United States, as immigrants or non-immigrants, of certain persons who are suspected to be involved in serious violations of human rights, humanitarian law and other abuses.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked United States President, Donald Trump, to temporarily ban state governors and other senior public officials misusing the criminal justice system to jail journalists, bloggers and activists reporting on allegations of corruption from entering the US. Though SERAP in its open letter to Trump did not list […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[47,33],"class_list":["post-22141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-governors","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}