3 weeks ago
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A South Africa-based online news platform, The Conversation Africa, has condemned the harassment of its West Africa editor and investigative journalist, Adejuwon Soyinka, by the Department of State Services.
Soyinka was detained for six hours on Sunday by the DSS when he landed at the Murtala Muhammad Aiport, Lagos, on a flight from the United Kingdom.
During questioning, he was told by the DSS that his name had been placed on a watchlist by another unnamed state security agency for reasons that were not explained.
He was later released, but his passport was withheld, pending confirmation by the DSS operatives that the unnamed agency that placed him on a watch list was no longer interested in him.
Soyinka’s release followed the intervention of the International Press Institute.
However, in a statement on Sunday, the management of the news platform stated that Soyinka’s harassment will have a negative effect on journalism and academia.
It stated that journalists and scholars should be free to make facts public, however inconvenient they might be for those in power.
The statement added, “Soyinka’s harassment will have a chilling effect, not only on journalism but on the academy, too. Both – media and academic freedoms, which are mutually beneficial – are key pillars of a free and democratic society. Journalists and scholars should be free to make facts public, however inconvenient those facts might be for those in power.”
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