Freedom of the Press and Nigerian Official Secrets Act 2004

Publication Details

Publication Date

10/07/2026

Volume / Issue

Vol 1, Issue 2 (2026)

Article No.

039

Journal

British Journal of Contemporary Research

Received

26 Jun 2026

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2

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0

Abstract

The 1999 Nigerian Constitution guarantees fundamental rights, including the right to freedom of expression and the Press to all citizens of Nigeria, including journalists. Thus paper evaluates some salient provisions of the Nigerian Official Secrets Act 2004 on the freedom of the Press. The research methodology utilised is mainly doctrinal analysis of applicable primary and secondary sources. The paper finds that the definition of classified matter under section 9(1) of the Nigerian Official Secrets Act 2004 is too wide and susceptible to abuse, as it allows the government to declare anything it likes as a classified matter and therefore not to be disclosed or revealed to the public without authorisation. The paper suggests that the Nigerian Official Secrets Act 2004 should be amended in its section 9(1) to define classified matter as only the information and public record which border on the defence and national security of Nigeria.

License

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License . Free to read, share, and adapt with attribution.