INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

It is imperative to understand from the onset that the press has been subjected to a nexus of retractions which has restricted the journalist to a corner as regards their expected reportage and performance.

However, the press has been faced with restrictions through set of codified laws, constitutional encroachments, obnoxious decrease, and official extra judicial limitation among others.

Furthermore, there are certain laws that the practicing Nigeria journalists should adhere to which are his actual professional guidelines, towards a better reportage. Moreover, such press can be seen as legal limitation of the press because of the NUSNGE backings of these press laws herein.

Before going deeper, one cannot out-rightly out state that the level of suggestion or adherence to press laws depends on the level of advancement of country in question. Suffices to note at the juncture, that most countries of the world including Nigeria, control their press through such laws like bribery slander, sedition contempt of court, obscenity and invasion of privacy and among a host of other press laws, but for the purpose of this study as regard the hazard involved, it will be wise to narrow down only in those aforementioned areas.

There are other laws as the copyright, has appropriate laws and among other laws. But the relevance is to analyze the above press laws among a plethora of other Laws on the practicing journalists.

Questions thus, arises what psychological orientation of these laws on the practicing Nigerian journalist? Again, law will the journalists react as regards the press laws in Nigeria? Is the constitution a limiting factor to the operations of the press? All these demand answer.

In a wider sense, the constitution is a body of rules of conduct imposed by a state upon its members and enforced by its courts. The institution regulates the activities of its members through its codified laws. According to J.W Salmond, “the constitution is that body of principle recognized and applied by the state in the administration of justice. Thus, the constitution is supreme and it provides a basis for predicting what will happen given a particular situation. It enables (us) to make a reasoned appraisal as to how society as represented by the courts will treat a particular transaction. Although it is not every action of transaction that will end in court, the law acts as a guide which chart the way transactions are conducted. The constitution therefore channels and shapes our experiences and expectations in a highly interactive world”. However the constitution and the NUJ codes of professional practice, act as an agent of check making and also regulating the functions of journalists through it various laws and ethical conduct. These laws include deformation, privacy, obscenity, copyright, sedition, contempt of court, official secrets act and contract.

The Law of Defamation 

Thus, defamation is divided into the categories libel and slander, and this division has important consequences. A libel consists of a defamatory statement of representation in permanent from, if a defamatory meaning is conveyed by spoken words or gestures. It is slander. Examples of libel as distinguished from slander are a picture, statue, wax work, effigy or writing, print, mark or sign exposed to view on the other hand, defamation in the manual language of the deaf and dump, mimicry and gesticulation would probably be slander, because the movement is more transient. These examples show that it is only broadly true to say that libel is addressed to the eye, slander to the ear. It needs no demonstration that if an oral utterance is communicated orally it is slander that is published or that if written statement is published or that if a written statement is show to a third person, it is a libel that is published.  

The Law of Privacy

Privacy is one of the fundamental rights of man which distinguishes him from the brutes. Specifically, section (37) of the 1999 constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria states that “the privacy of citizens, their homes correspondence telephone conversation and telegraphic communications in hereby guaranteed and protected.” The idea is to ensure that the privacy of the individuals is protected in no condition should journalists interfere unduly into the private life of any individual. 

Copy Right Law

Copy right law according to the Blacks law dictionary defined copy right as “the right to literacy property a recognized and sanctioned by positive law. An intangible incorporporeal right granted by statue to the author of origination of certain literacy or artistic production, whereby he is invested for a limited period with the sole and exclusive privilege of multiplying copies of the same and publishing and selling them”. Originally promulgated as copyright decree (47) of 1988 enumerated works, which are eligible for copyright as literacy works. Sound recording, musical works, artist works cinema, autographic films and broadcasts.

Official Secrets Acts

The objective of these acts is to protect the interest of the state. It is climbed at preventing spying of the communication of state secrets and any beach of the official trust. Official secrets acts forbid anybody to approach, inspect Passover, enter into any prohibited area, sketch, plan, model anything intended to be useful to any enemy and or obtain collect, record, or communicate to any person any information which might be or is intended to be useful to any enemy

Law of Obscenity

Obscenity deals with the journalistic avoidance of any publication that tend to deprive or corrupt, those whose minds are vulnerable to such immoral influences.