NIGERIA
1.5 Protection of confidential sources of information is guaranteed by law.
ANALYSIS:
The near unanimous view is that protection of confidential sources
is not guaranteed by law. Public information is not easily accessible
as Nigeria does not have any legislation that guarantees the rights
of journalists to protect their sources. In the case of Tony Momoh vs
The Senate in the Second Republic, the position of the Court of Appeal was that Section 39 of the 1979 constitution whose provisions
were basically the same as the 1999 constitution, does not confer
any special privilege on the media to protect their sources. There
also seems to be a draft bill pending before Parliament.
One can also approach the courts on the basis of the human rights
section of the constitution. Some cases have even been won. Here
the boundaries of the constitution needed further testing, one member of the panel summarized the general view.
SCORES:
Individual scores:			

1; 1; 1; 1; 2; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1

Total score:				

12

Average score:			

1.1

1.6		 Public information is easily accessible, guaranteed by law, 		
		 to all citizens, including journalists.
ANALYSIS:
The vicissitudes of the Freedom of Information Bill (FOI) illustrates
the lack of legally protected accessibility of journalist and others
to information. Although the legislature whose life expired in 2007
passed the bill, it was not signed into law by President Olusegun
8				

African Media Barometer - Nigeria 2008

Select target paragraph3