Withdraw ‘repressive NASS media accreditation guidelines now’, SERAP tells Saraki, Dogara

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has
urged the “leadership and management of the National Assembly to
immediately withdraw the repressive media accreditation guidelines
or face legal action.”

The National Assembly leadership and management had in a letter
yesterday issued the ‘media accreditation guidelines’ that would
prevent journalists from covering the ninth National Assembly. Some
of the 20 conditions listed are evidence of incorporation of the
media organisation, proof of membership of the NUJ with
registration number and the code of certification from the National
Library of Nigeria.

Reacting, SERAP in a statement today by its deputy director
Kolawole Oluwadare said: “Nigerians expect the leadership of the
National Assembly to show a greater level of transparency and
accountability and to explain and take responsibility for what they
are doing rather than implicitly banning journalists from covering
their public functions. Implementing the ‘accreditation guidelines’
would allow the lawmakers to escape accountability for their
constitutional functions.”

The organization urged the Senate President Bukola Saraki and
Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara to “open the
windows and let in the daylight’ of the National Assembly by
immediately withdrawing the accreditation guidelines and allowing
journalists to freely cover the activities of leadership and
members of the National Assembly.”

The organization said it would: “pursue national and
international legal action if the unlawful guidelines is not
withdrawn by Friday.”

The statement read in part: “These accreditation guidelines are
designed deliberately as barriers against transparency and
accountability and amount to a blatant violation of the rights to
freedom of expression, freedom of information and media
freedom.

These are fundamental rights lying at the heart of any system of
democratic governance.”

“The accreditation guidelines clearly run counter to
constitutional provisions and Nigeria’s international human rights
obligations and the notion of free marketplace of ideas, necessary
to serve the best interests of the public.”

“Our constitutional democracy rests on the assumption that the
widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and
antagonistic sources is essential to the welfare of the public,
that a free press is a condition of a free society.”

“A democracy requires accountability, and accountability
requires access to information, as ‘sunlight is the best of
disinfectants.’ Allowing journalists to freely cover the activities
of the National Assembly would be the most prominent expression of
a commitment to ensuring an open National Assembly. At the heart of
that commitment is the idea that accountability is in the interest
of the lawmakers and the citizenry alike.”

“Other requirements under the guidelines are circulation of at
least 40,000 newspaper copies daily with evidence to support the
claimed figure, evidence of 50,000 daily views in the case of
online media and photocopies of media organisation’s tax return for
at least two years.”

“Others include requirements for fresh accreditation are
evidence of membership of professional bodies for media
organisation, a functional bureau in Abuja with staff strength of
not less than five editorial staff publishing daily and on
weekend.”

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