President Goodluck Jonathan
Following the arrest, detention and subsequent release of four journalists working for Leadership Newspapers, the presidency Wednesday said President Goodluck Jonathan did not instruct the police to arrest them.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, in a statement said the president did not have to issue an order to the police to perform their constitutional responsibility of forestalling incitement and the breakdown of law and order that may have arisen from the publication of the ‘bromide’ story.
Abati, who disclosed this in a statement, said the circulation of the ‘bromide’ story by Leadership Newspapers was inimical to public peace and democratic stability. The statement stated that the ‘bromide’ story was capable of causing “civil strife, engender a breakdown of law and order, and negate the values of our democracy, is a very grievous act indeed that should not be ignored.”
He noted that the police reacted to the publication in the public interest to nip in the bud the possible effect it could have on "ethos of governance and professionalism," stressing that every responsible citizen, interest group and the entire media would have acted in the same manner to protect the collective interest of the country.
According to him, the publication “like others that threaten our democracy and undermine law and order, become the duty of the police as an institution to investigate,” while also adding that the newspaper should see what happened as an avenue for it to work closely with the police to safeguard the rule of law.
“The Leadership newspapers should see this as an opportunity to cooperate with the police as required by the laws of the land. The police have not done anything outside the law. The trite rule is that nobody is above the laws of the land. It is also within the powers of the police to invite persons for questioning and to conduct investigations, which is what they have done so far in The Leadership Newspapers case. Or are the editors of the Leadership newspapers insisting that they are above the laws of the land?” he queried.
He explained that what was expected from the management of the newspaper, after the rebuttal he made before the arrest of the four journalists, was that it would publicly retract the story.
He said doing this would have been a good option for the paper in the interest of elected officials and the citizenry, emphasising that “the freedom of expression goes hand in hand with great responsibility.”
Observing that the incumbent administration has demonstrated its commitment to press freedom times over, through the signing of the Freedom of Information Bill (FoI) by the President, Abati said: “It will be disingenuous to suggest that there is a clampdown of any sort or an attempt to stifle the press.”
Apparently making references to similar cases that are current in the United Kingdom, the special adviser admonished the newspaper’s management to be more circumspect in its reading of what happened.
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