THE ASSESSMENT OF NIGERIA PRESS COUNCIL AS A REGULATORY MECHANISM FOR NIGERIAN JOURNALISTS

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 INTRODUCTION

The Nigerian Press Council is to proactively respond to the needs of the Nigerian mass media and the public by facilitating through complaints resolution, research, training and workshops the sustainable development of journalism profession, curricula and accreditation of journalism training institutions in Nigeria. With the vision to create an enabling environment for the maintenance of the highest ethical and professional standards in the media through research and the provision of cheapest and fastest redress mechanism between the media and the public.

Nigerian Press Council is an agency under the Federal Ministry of Information and Communications. It was established by Act No. 85 of 1992 as amended in Act No. 60 of 1999 to promote high professional standards for the Nigeria Press.The functions of the Nigerian Press Council include: 1. Enquiring into complaints about the conduct of the press and the conduct of any person or organization towards the press and exercising in respect of the complaints the powers conferred upon it under this Act;

2. Monitoring the activities of the press with a view to ensuring compliance with the code of Professional and Ethical Conduct of the Nigerian Union of Journalists;

3. Receiving application from, and documenting the print media and monitoring their performance to ensure that owners and publishers comply with the terms of their mission statements and objectives in liaison with the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria;

4. Research into contemporary press development and engaging in updating press documentation;

5. Fostering the achievement and maintenance of high professional standards by the Press;

6. Review developments likely to restrict the supply through the press, of information of public interest and importance or which are liable to prevent free access of press to information and advising on measures necessary to prevent or remedy such development; and

7. Ensure the protection of the rights and privileges of journalists in the lawful performance of their professional duties.Their mission statement is to serve journalism and its publics by facilitating access to information; protecting the privileges of journalists and ensuring conformity with the code of ethics; accredit journalism training institutions and carry out capacity building, documentation and research on press development and provide the cheapest and effective means of adjudication for complaints between journalists and the public.

The freedom of expression of the press is a crucial ingredient of democracy. The greatest challenge to the mass media in Nigeria since independence is how to make itself relevant to the Nigerian society particularly in this era ofdemocracy. The press ought to exercise caution if it is to preserve its freedom. In the light of this national culture, religion, security and tradition should be treated with utmost care by the media more-so that Nigeria is a multi-ethnic state. It is in the light of this that the study discusses the role of the media and the hurdles faced by the Nigerian Journalist.The media in any society is charged with the decorum to inform, educate, entertain, publicize and most importantly, correct the excesses of society. The Nigerian mass media since 1984 has faced the greatest challenge of how to fulfill these relevant roles to the Nigerian society. First, publishers in Nigeria remain in business collaborating with the political class and by revenue generated from cover price of their titles and advertisement. Second, reporters faces a dual problem of either objectivity or allegiance to his employer Third, Nigerian Journalist suffered insecurity of arbitrary arrest and detention in the years of military rule. Several decrees promulgated ousted press freedom. Journalist fought tenaciously against such constitutional edicts by its publications. Fourth, the media has over the years been colored, shaped or influenced by emotions, sentiments and other extraneous forces at work. This has made it difficult for the media to truly float its own programme and agenda. Fifth, the media is expected to play the watchdog role of the five ‘W’s’ and ‘H’ i.e. what, who, where, when and how. Sadly, the level of coverage given to a particular event by Nigerian media practitioners is determined by the amount of money channeled to a particular media by a sponsor.

2.2 THE MEDIA AS A WATCHDOG

In today’s politics and society at large, media is essential to the safeguarding transparency of democratic processes. This is often called its ‘watchdog’ role. Transparency is required on many levels including for access to information; accountability and legitimacy of individuals, institutions and processes themselves; and for rightful participation and public debate.

Transparency as required for access to information means that an electorate is provided necessary and comprehensive information so as to make informed choices as well as be able to hold officials and institutions accountable. This includes access to legal and operational proceedings as well as information about officials and institutions. Specific to elections, an EMB for example, is obligated to inform the public on their actions, decisions, and plans. Individuals appointed or elected to an EMB body are public figures who should be working in the interests of the public. As such, information regarding their affiliations, histories, and performance while in office, is to be freely accessed by the public.

The watchdog role requires the news media to provide a check on powerful sectors of society, including leaders within the private and public domains. Journalists are expected to guard the public interest and to protect it from incompetence, corruption and misinformation. The available empirical evidence suggests that in many countries, the free press does indeed often promote transparency, but journalists are often face serious constraints and obstacles in this regard, especially in autocracies.

Media acts as a mechanism for the prevention and investigation of allegations of violations or malpractice. This watchdog role extends from accountability of officials and their actions while ‘in office’ to entire processes. For example, media presence at voting and counting centres is critical to preventing electoral fraud, given that full measures protecting freedom of speech are guaranteed, and that media are free to act independently and with impartiality.

An election cannot be deemed democratic unless the public is fully able to participate and is unhindered in exercising choice. As such, media are vital in ensuring that there is a public, i.e. transparent, platform for debate and participation in the discussion. Candidates are to represent the public. Transparency of an election helps ensures that this indeed is so. Furthermore, transparency of individual processes (such as voting, counting, registering, candidate nomination, campaigning and so forth) further protects and enables public participation in these processes.

2.3 THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA

The traditional role of the media in any society is to inform, educate, entertain, publicize and perhaps most importantly, correct the excesses of society. The mass media comprises the means by which a society disseminates and receives information. The traditional instruments of the mass media to the modern man are the newspapers, News Agency, magazines, radio and television. The media functions as watchdog capable of blowing the whistle to call attention to serious national issues. This implies a clear recognition of the fact that the media plays an important role on issues of national security. The Journalist is a human being, he studies other human creatures, report about human being and human beings are the source of his information. In essence, journalism is a social relation. The information disseminated by the journalist could be harmful or useful depends on its contents. The media transmit messages about a particular society. No one else can play this role. The information is passed across a destination to achieve a goal. As part of its social function, the media is expected to mobilize people to achieve the desired objective of the state. This view is articulated by Nzimiro: A major role of the media is to mobilize the people through ideological exposure which implies their political education into the socio-cultural sector which govern their behavior to produce in them a sense of pride in themselves and patriotism for the collective good as well as a belief that they are capable of mastering their own destiny, controlling nature and organizing themselves. The media possess enormous power to decide what the people should read, see or hear. What has been in the centre of controversy is the capacity of those in whose hands reside such enormous powers to use that power judiciously and in public interest. Media professionals have the options to use the power of media instruments in their hands either to serve the nation or indulge in self-propelled interest. The media ought to be objective as it carries out its functions. According to Ofuafor6mainly because of its social role in informing and educating the masses the Nigerian press is always made to be seen at the centre of any national crisis. This has caused the Nigerian media to be reduced overtime to mere tools in the hands of the governing class to legitimize and perpetuate their illegitimate rule. The political class has found it easy to impose its will on the media because of the challenges that media practitioners had to face in thecourse of discharging their duties. Such challenges include poor remunerations, poor conditions of service, job insecurity, nepotism, exposure to hazards, inadequate facilities for research and development and so on. Indeed, the media is expected to play the watchdog role of the five ‘W’s’ and ‘H’ i.e. what, who, where, when and how. The media is expected to keep the electorates abreast of events to ensure free and fair elections. However, the Nigerian media has not done well in political coverage because of political cleavages and by proprietary inclinations. Sadly, the level of coverage given to a particular event by Nigerian media practitioners is determined by the amount of money channeled to a particular media by a sponsor.

2.4 THE ASSESSMENT OF THE NIGERIAN PRESS COUNCIL

Journalism entails a high degree of public trust. To earn and maintain this trust, it is morally imperative for every journalist and every news medium to observe the highest professional and ethical standards. In the exercise of these duties, a journalist should always have a healthy regard for the public interest.

Truth is the cornerstone of journalism and every journalist should strive diligently to ascertain the truth of every event.

Conscious of the responsibilities and duties of journalists as purveyors of information, we, Nigerian journalist, give to ourselves this Code of Ethics. It is the duty of every journalist to observe its provisions.

Over the years, the agitation for the emergence of a free press society, has been on the front burner of national discuss, especially among journalism practitioners in Nigeria. This is owing largely to the fact that the expediency of having a legislation that guarantees a high level of press freedom cannot be ignored. It cannot be ignored apparently against the backdrop of the attendant positive effect it could have on any society.

In 2011, the Nigerian Government signed the FOI Bill into law, thereby making Nigeria the ninth country in Africa and among the over 90 countries in the world to have passed this bill. The Act, according to Media Rights Agenda (2011), is indeed very explicit in its mission, which is simply to: Make public records and information more freely available, provide for public access to public records and information, protect public records and information to the extent consistent with the public interest and the protection of personal privacy, protect serving public officers from adverse consequences for disclosing certain kinds of official information without authorization and establish procedures for the achievement of those purposes and; for related matters.

Journalists’ age-long struggles for emancipation from restrictive and oppressive legislations have not been without unpleasant experiences and even extreme cases of martyrdom. Instances of oppressive measures against the press and journalists date as far back as the fifteenth century. Finkelstein (2012), in his Report of the Independent Inquiry into the Media and Media Regulation, observes that the restrictive measures on journalists and the press date as far back as 1476 when the newlyinvented printing press came to England and revolutionized communication possibilities. The press then, faced lots of prosecutions for treason and seditious libel. These repressive legislations reigned supreme till the mid-18th century when the struggle for liberation became apparent (Keane, 1991; Curran, 2010), cited in Finkelstein (2012, pp.25-26). Democratic governments realized the need for liberty and enthronement of the ‘Marketplace of Ideas’. Steyn (2000) buttressed this point with the assertion that ‘Freedom of speech is the life blood of democracy’. With the concept of democracy becoming the order of the day, (perhaps courtesy of the frantic efforts of the United Nations), many countries realizing the fact that information is key to strengthening government-citizen relations and a means of enthroning a transparent and accountable government, made deliberate efforts to implement Freedom of Information (FOI) laws (acts) - the legislation that empowers or enables the citizens of a country to demand free access to certain specified documents or information - to give the press freer hand to operate within the ambits of journalistic ethics. To this end, several countries have adopted various forms of the FOI Laws (or similar legislations) (Schenkelaars and Ahmad, 2004; Ojo, 2010). Schenkelaars and Ahmad(2004) further observe that there was a sharp rise in the number of countries that adopted various forms of FOI legislations from 1980 to 2001, and that 80% of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries now has legislation on this subject.

2.5LEGAL CONSTRAINTS ON JOURNALISTIC PRACTICE IN NIGERIA

Thomas Jefferson, the third American president said that he preferred a press without a government than a government without a press. Sad to say, experience has shown that the reverse is the case in Nigeria. The authorities (government) hate the investigative inclination, eagle and probing eyes of journalists thus they try to muzzle the press with legal and extra-legal instruments at their disposal. Asadu (2007:261) identified one of the legal control mechanisms that weigh the media down in the discharge of their social responsibility to the people as law on sedition. Fred (1999:3) adds that the ruling class is suspicious that a free press could “lionize” the ordinary citizens to the extent of causing a shift in the base of power. This assumption, though erroneous has its grounds on the contributions which journalism made towards the decolonization of Nigeria. The root of the ruling class’s suspicion of the press is therefore traceable to the mistaken imagination according to Wilcox (1975) as cited by Fred (1999:4) since a fettered pre-independence press was able to remove the powerful colonial masters, then anunfettered post-independent press would be too hot for less powerful African masters to contend with. In recognition of the importance of press freedom, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (10th December 1948) according to Emmanuel (2006:130) everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression. This right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek and receive information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers. What then is press freedom? Alabi (2003:53) as cited by Innocent (2007:47), defined press freedom to mean that the press should be allowed to publish without prior restraint. Onogoruwa (1985:15) on the other hand defines press freedom as the right of the press to publish without being subjected to intimidation, threat, molestation or blackmail. Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria lends credence to the crucial role of the press; the extent to which the Nigerian mass media are able to discharge. This all-important role depends; to a very large extent, on the width and depth of the enabling environment that is created and sustained by the law of the land (Okoro and Okolie, 2004:65). Press laws regulate the activities of the professional journalists, for according to Okunna (1995) cited in Okoro (2004:65) media laws are rules made by government for the regulation of the activities of mass media professionals so as to ensure correct conduct by them. Media laws are necessary since there is no absolute freedom anywhere in the world but a closer look at laws governing the activities of journalism especially the print reveals that the laws have not been mild. Some of these laws are listed below:

1. The Newspaper Act, 1917
2. Printing Presses Regulation Act, 1933
3. Criminal Code and Penal Code: (a.) Sedition, (b.) Injurious falsehood, (c.) Criminal defamation, (d.) Prohibition of imported Publications, (e.)Seditious publication against foreign Heads of State, (f.) Contempt of court.
4. Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications Act, 1961)
5. Defamation Act, 1961
6. Seditious Meeting Act, 1961
7. Obscene Publication Act, 1961
8. Official Secrets Act, 1962
9. Newspaper (Amendment) Act, 1964
10. Circulation of Newspaper Decree No. 2, 1966
11. The Defamatory and Offensive Publications Decree No. 44, 1966
12. Newspaper (Prohibition of Circulation) Decree No. 17,1967
13. Public Officers (Protection Against False Accusation) Decree No. 11, 1976
14. Newspaper (Prohibition of Circulation) Validation Decree No. 12, 1978 (Momoh, 2002: 10-33).

2.6MEDIA ETHICS AND JOURNALISM PRACTICE

Ethics is seen as a branch of knowledge which is concerned with the standards of good or bad conduct in society, using societal norms as a basis for the evaluation of human conduct or behavior. This indicates that ethics applies to all spheres of life and profession in the society. Every profession has its ethics. The class of ethics that governs mass media practice is called media ethics. According to Prasad (2008, p.33), “media ethics is the subdivision of applied ethics dealing with the specific ethical principles and standards of media, including broadcast media, film, theatre, the arts, print media and the Internet. The field covers many varied and highly controversial topics, ranging from war journalism to advertising.” It must however be pointed out that there are many classes of media ethics, viz: media ethics relating to: journalism, entertainment, democracy, media economics, public officials and culture (Wikipedia, 2011). Of all the areas of media ethics, journalistic ethics is one of the most well-defined. Two reasons can be advanced for this. First, it is frequently taught in higher institutions offering communication and journalism studies. Secondly, journalism is the nucleus of mass media practice. Journalistic ethics are the codes of behaviour or moral principles that guide the activities of journalists in any given situation. They are therefore the bases for the judgement of the rightness or otherwise of the action or behaviour of the journalist. They are often encapsulated in journalism codes of practice. Media ethics mainly revolves around truthfulness, accuracy, fairness, objectivity and editorial independence (BBC, 2010). Other topics covered by journalism ethics include news manipulation, truth and values, truth and fantasy, truth and public interest, privacy, taste and conflict with the law. In this case, the equitable maxim, where equities are equal, the law prevails, is instructive – meaning where there is a conflict between media ethics and the law, the law takes pre-eminence. The depiction of violence and sex, the presence of foul/strong language, product placement, stereotypes, taste and taboos constitute the concern of ethics of the entertainment media. Because of the questions of values in artists and entertainment, ethics becomes imperative since these two aspects (values and arts) usually come in conflict with each other. From the above discourse, it is obvious that both media laws and media ethics constitute a kind of watch-dog to journalism practice. While media laws are rules made outside the media circle, ethics is the objective moral principle, which forms the basis of guidelines for, and regulating, the conduct of journalists in their profession. Unfortunately in Nigeria, contemporary socio-economic and political trends seem to contradict the above function of media laws and ethics. It therefore becomes necessary to critically examine the extent to which mass media laws and ethics have influenced journalism practice in Nigeria.

2.7NIGERIAN PRESS AND THE QUEST FOR PROFESSIONALISM

The institutional position of the press as the watchdog of the society, has found expression in section 22 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which states explicitly “The press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people”. The chapter referred to is chapter 11, which is entitled “Fundamental objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy”, covering sections 13-14 of the constitution, and outlining the fundamental obligations of the government and the people of Nigeria, as well as the political, economic, social, educational, environmental and cultural foreign policy thrust of the country. To give impetus to the above, section 39 of the same 1999 Constitution, entitled “Right to freedom of expression and the press”, declares as follow: 1. Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference

2. Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1) of this section; every person shall be entitled to own, establish and operate any medium for the dissemination of information, ideas and opinions, provided that no person, other than the government of the federation or of a state or any other person or body authorized by the president on the fulfillment of conditions laid down by an Act of the National Assembly, shall own, establish or operate a television or wireless broadcasting station for any purpose whatsoever. Following the above constitutional provision, it is quite glaring that the 1999 Constitution, is in support of Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states expressly that “everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression. The right includes freedom to hold opinion without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regard less of frontiers”. But the extent of the abuse of these constitutional provisions by a section of the Nigerian press has not only necessitated this research, but it has also made the society and others to call for the adherence to professionalism of journalism. In spite of the many laudable roles played by the media, and are still playing, there are still some dark sides to it. Agbese (2000:3), in carpeting the Nigerian press, notes as follow: They do not correctly mirror the society. They exaggerate. They sensationalize. They are unpatriotic. They pander to ethnic, sectional and market forces. They ignore the wider national interest in pursuit of narrow and selfish interests that do not promote national unity and cohesion. They over emphasize the negative and ignore or at best down play the positive achievements in our national life. Agbese goes further to assert that certain section of the press has shown a tendency towards the negative approach capable of wrecking this country; he laments the negative approach adopted by some Nigerian Journalists, who indulge in vicious, and sensational journalism, unmindful of that fact that by their actions, the prestige and stability of the country, is to that extent affected, possibly with unpredictable grave consequences for the country and the wellbeing of the citizens. He argues further that Nigerian journalists are not to lose much credibility, and become a laughing stock in the eyes of others; they must change their unprofessional conduct and put an end to ruinous journalism in favour of something more constructive. This is exactly the state of the government owned press in Nigeria where meaningful development issues are abandoned for frivolous issues simply because it concerns the chief executive of the state. This scenario became associated with the Ondo State Broadcasting Corporation (OSBC) Akure during the government of the ousted governor, OlusegunAgagu. During the illegal stay of OlusegunAgagu in government house Akure, the government owned radio and television stations were engaged in open air insult and the use of derogatory words against the opposition parties in the state. Sambe (2005:185) corroborates the above by arguing that in most cases, absolute falsehood and half-truths are reported as facts, a practice that has already degenerated to such a level that some readers take news stories from the Nigerian press, with a pinch of salt. This view is equally supported by Oso (1997:14), Yussuf (2000:46), Ekpu (1993:19) and Jibo (2000:8). But how did the Nigerian press come to this sorry pass that the laws and ethics of the profession seem to have been thrown overboard? The Nigerian press, especially the pre-independent press, was known to be virile, vibrant and alive to its responsibilities. Even with the average level of education which journalists had then, they were able to conduct themselves properly.

2.8THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Journalism practice entails a great deal of fiduciary relationship between the journalist and members of the society, to whom the journalist publishes. This relationship therefore entrusts a commendable level of responsibility on the journalist. A good practice of journalism demands high compliance with the legal and ethical dictates of the profession. This research is hinged on the law and ethics of journalism profession. In order to give the study a focus in the light of related concepts and principles, the study is founded on the framework of the Social Judgement theory. The theory hinges on how individuals judge the message they receive. It follows that every bit of information from the mass media passes through some sorts of judgement by the audience before it is accepted, rejected or is left in-between acceptance and rejection. The social judgement theory was postulated in 1965 by MuzaferSherif, Carolyn Sherif and Carl Hovland. For them, social judgement theory extends its concern to the fields of perception and persuasion, based on the attitude of the audience. According to Griffin (2000) attitude, which guides a person to pass judgement on the message, is an amalgam of three zones:

1. The latitude of acceptance: it is made up of the items that people underscore as being acceptable.
2. The latitude of rejection: it comprises the opinions or information that people cross out as objectionable.
3. The latitude of non-commitment: it consists of the message or information which people find neither objectionable nor acceptable. This implies either the audience is yet to pass judgement, for whatever reason or the issue is too insignificant for the audience’s thought and judgement over it.

The foregoing means that for the audience of mass media, judgement is anchored on perception and attitude. Thus where people (the audience) judge a new message or information to be within their latitude of acceptance, they then adjust their attitude somewhat to accommodate the new input. Accepting or rejecting a message or exhibiting non-commitment, to some extent, relates to the cognitive map of the audience. Perry (2002) links the social judgement theory to ego-involvement. Ego-involvement relates to how crucial an issue is in the life of the audience. Thus where the mass media content is of significance to the audience, it becomes pertinent for the audience to be engaged in the cognitive process of arriving at the appropriate judgment. The social judgement theory is relevant to this study in the sense that, our contemporary society is too advanced for it to be thought that the audience would receive all the media contents hook, line and singer, without any form of judgement.

2.9FREEDOM OF INFORMATION AND THE MEDIA IN NIGERIAN CONSTITUTION: THE NEED FOR A REVIEW

The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is the supreme document that defines all the fundamental principles according to which a nation is governed or constituted. In view of the underpinning importance of human rights, both the 1979 and the 1999 Constitutions have recognized that Freedom of Expression and the press is fundamental for the exercise of human right and expression of opinions. Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution, titled the “obligation of the mass media”, expressly state that “the press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people.” This section in essence 41 means that the press is justified to uphold the political, social, economic, cultural and international policy objectives of Nigeria. Okoro/Okolie (2004) include that “the idea is to institute and sustain a mechanism for national development and the furtherance of national interest in the sphere of regional and international interactions.” Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution titled: „Right to Freedom of Expression and the Press‟ states as follows:

1. Every person shall be entitled to Freedom of Expression including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.
2. Without prejudice to the generality of section (1) of this section, every person shall be entitled to own, establish and operate any medium for the dissemination of information, ideas, and opinions: provided that no person, other than the government of the federation or of a state or any other person or body authorized by the President in fulfillment of conditions laid down by an act of the National Assembly shall own, establish or operate a television or wireless broadcasting station for any purpose whatsoever.
3. Nothing in this section shall invalidate any law that is reasonably justifiable in democratic society (a) for the purpose of preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, maintaining the authority and independence of courts or regulating telephony, wireless broadcasting, television or the exhibition of cinematography films; or (b) imposing restriction upon persons holding office under the government of the federation or of a state, members of the Nigeria police force or other government security services or agencies established by law.

Spanning through the provisions and the spirit of section 39(1) (2), it is easily deduced that the constitution is in support of the Article 19 of the United 42 Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights which state that: “everyone has the right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression. The right includes freedom to hold opinion without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas, through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Other Articles that lend credence to Human Rights and the media are Article 19 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights operational on March 23, 1973; Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights, adopted on November 22, 1969 and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights brought into force on September 3, 1953 (Daramola, 2003B cited in Oji, 2008). All these articles are to guarantee the media certain right and Freedom of Practice. Yakubu (1999) cited in Okoro/Okolie (2004:59) admits that “it is fundamental in any civilized society to guarantee the right of each person to express himself not only in respect of issues or matters of individual nature but also in respect of issues of public interest.” However, the Nigerian constitution under section 39 does not give specific treatment to the press. Okoro/Okolie (2004:60) indicate that “the right purported to have been given every person is quickly taken away by sub-section (3) which says: nothing in this section shall invalidate any laws that is reasonably justifiable in a democratic society; and section 45 which, under the title restriction on and derogation from fundamental rights, assert that nothing in section 37, 38, 39, 40 and 41 of this constitution shall invalidate any law that is reason justifiable in a democratic society (a) in the interest of defence, public safety, public order, public morality or public health; or (b) for the purpose of protecting the rights and freedom of other persons.” Okoro/Okolie argue that the determination of „what is in the interest of defence, public safety, public order, public morality or public health‟ or when a law is enacted for the „purpose of protecting the rights and freedom of other persons, are not clearly defined; adding that such determination lies in the hands of people in the helm of affairs. One basic ingredient that is sure to oil wheels of a free press is access to government information, hence the need for a Freedom of Information Laws to be enshrined in our constitution. A review of the 1999 Constitution to accommodate FOI laws will make Nigeria more democratic and institute an atmosphere of discipline, patriotism and efficiency in the administration of public policies. With Freedom of Information Laws, the much agitated press freedom may have been achieved. With the 7 point agenda of President Yar’Adua and the efforts to fight corruption, Freedom of Information would be a vital instrument for fighting corruption. It will also aid the nation’s anti-graft agencies: EFCC, ICPC etc, in their work. Statistics reveal that in countries where Freedom of Information has been enforced, positive results have been realized in terms of reduction in corruption, inefficiency and mismanagement. Statistics also show that in 2005, of the ten countries scoring best in Transparency International’s Annual Corruption Perception Index, no fewer than nine had effective legislation enabling the public to peruse government files and of the ten countries that were perceived to be the worst in corruption, only two had Freedom of Information Legislation (allafrican.com, 2008). Meanwhile, FOI reduces corruption and promotes transparency in governance, since citizens are empowered through information. Demystification of rules and procedures, proactive dissemination of relevant information touching on matters of public policy is a strong safeguard against corruption; therefore a formidable FOI legislation need be enshrined in Nigerian Constitution to actualize the objectives of democracy.