Mustapha Suleiman
22 September 2008
The leadership of the West Africa Students Union (WASU), has decried the recent closure of channels television over a report on the purported resignation of President Umaru Musa Yar'adua due to ill health.
The students union made this known in a statement signed by its President, Daniel Onjeh and distributed to media houses in Abuja.
The statement said that the magnitude of the Channels offence under a democratic dispensation does not warrant such a drastic measure, adding that it only casts one's mind back to the dark-era of military dictatorship.
The statement drew the attention of the federal government to the United Nations press freedom which gives the press the freedom to report anything that borders on national issues.
"One of the United Nations indicators of a nation's development is the degree of the freedom of its press.
President Yar'adua must note that quoting high foreign reserves and GDPS alone does not reflect good governance," the statement said.
It said that the action of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and the security service in shutting down the media house over the purported false information was vindictive and unlawful, adding that it negates democratic principles and practices.
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