RNW: Boko Haram wages war on Nigerian journalists

“Up until now, nothing has been done to help fellow media professionals,” the unnamed journalist says. “We need a safe environment to be able to do our job, but also a safety net for our families. We need protection for ourselves and our families.”

The concerns are echoed in the capital city of Borno State, were, Bello Umar hosts community radio programmes in Haoussa, the local dialect.

“Here in Maiduguri, we can no longer report the news freely and objectively, for fear of becoming the next victims of the sect. Freedom of expression has been violated,” he says. “The army is already patrolling the streets, but that’s not enough. We fear for our families. The government must do something to resolve this situation,” the radio journalist adds.

In April, Boko Haram members bombed the ThisDay newspaper office building in Abuja and another in Kaduna that houses This Day, The Sun and The Moment. The Islamist sect has since threatened foreign media, namely the Haoussa broadcasting teams of Radio France International (RFI) and Voice of America (VOA).

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