NIGERIA mercial interests allied to the employers make journalists think twice before they write certain things. “There is a whole web in which you don’t know how to navigate”, one member of the panel said. Ethnic and communal pressures do similarly constrain reporting. There is sometimes fear for life, fear to loose your job, “because anything can happen in terms of ethnic conflicts.” On the other hand, people practice their freedom of expression but not without fear. Citizens increasingly take advantage of phone-in programmes on television and radio although the candour of these is limited by the tendency to ‘screen’ the views before airing them for fear of reprisals, or by ‘briefings’ given to moderators before the show. “But most citizens”, one panelist said, “have the guts to call”. Live programmes on television are sometimes weakened in impact by efforts to set boundaries of discourse. It is noteworthy that Nigeria has many pressure groups engaged in the campaign for expanding the scope and frontiers of media expression. SCORES: Individual scores: 2; 2; 3; 2; 2; 3; 2; 1; 3; 3; 3 Total score: 26 Average score: 2.4 1.3 There are no laws restricting freedom of expression such as excessive official secret or libel acts, or laws that unreasonably interfere with the responsibilities of Media. ANALYSIS: There are laws, as noted before, that restrict freedom of expresAfrican Media Barometer - Nigeria 2008 5