A new Chart of the Week released by NewsCentral, a Nigerian-based multi-platform African news organisation, using data from SBM Intelligence, Streitberg–Mtri Business Intelligence and EiE Nigeria, Enough is Enough Nigeria, reveals a worrying decline in press safety.
The report shows that between 2019 and 2025, at least 94 attacks and 21 deaths involving journalists were recorded nationwide, reflecting a rising atmosphere of fear, violence, and intimidation for media workers.
The data shows that journalists continue to face danger from multiple sources. Kidnapping leads the list of threats with 32 cases, followed by 24 incidents of forceful brutality, often linked to security operatives.
Mob violence accounts for 11 attacks, while electoral violence, political violence, gun violence, armed robbery, and banditry also contributed to the rising toll. Even isolated cases of gang violence and thuggery were recorded.
Out of the 94 recorded incidents, 21 journalists lost their lives, many during assignments involving politics, security operations, elections, or organised crime. The trend shows spikes during election periods and moments of heightened national insecurity, mirroring Nigeria’s broader instability.
Hotspots: Where Journalists Are Most at Risk
The Federal Capital Territory, FCT, tops the list of affected states with 11 attacks, followed closely by Lagos (10) and Kano (7). Other high-risk states include Rivers, Oyo, Anambra, Delta, Kogi, and Osun. With South-West recording the highest number of incidents with 23, North-Central followed with 20, North-West with 18, South-East with 15, South-South with 12, and North-East with 6
This spread indicates that no region in the country is completely safe for journalists.
The timeline from 2019 to 2025 reveals inconsistent but persistent spikes in violence. Reported incidents climbed sharply in 2022 and 2024, with corresponding increases in fatalities. Although there appears to be a slight drop in 2025, the numbers remain a cause for concern.
Press Freedom Under Serious Threat
Across Nigeria, journalists continue to experience harassment, intimidation, illegal detentions, physical assaults, and sometimes fatal attacks while attempting to hold power accountable. Advocacy groups warn that these attacks are not just assaults on individuals, but direct threats to democracy and public access to unbiased information.
Civil society organisations, including the Take It Back Movement, EiE Nigeria, have consistently urged authorities to prosecute perpetrators, enforce better protection laws, and implement media-safety protocols.
One of the cases of recent attacks on journalists is that of Daniel Ojukwu, a reporter with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism, FIJ, who was allegedly assaulted on August 29, 2025, by officers at the Lagos State Police Command.
Ojukwu had visited the Command to meet with the Complaints Response Unit, CRU, after obtaining details about officers accused of extorting detainees. According to FIJ, the confrontation began when he attempted to engage personnel at the Squad 1 office. Three officers reportedly attacked him, seized his phone, and searched through it without consent. When he objected, one officer pushed him out of the office, triggering a violent assault during which a heavily built officer allegedly kneed him in the face, shattering his glasses.
About six officers were said to have joined in, inflicting additional injuries, ripping his wristwatch, and scratching his arm. He was then dragged into another office where one officer allegedly brandished a machete and threatened, “I will cut off your neck now. You think here is child’s play?” As he struggled to breathe, another officer allegedly mocked him, saying, “You will die here, and the autopsy will show asthma killed you, not police brutality.”
As these attacks on journalists continue, one thing has become unmistakably clear: press freedom in Nigeria is under unprecedented pressure. With 94 recorded assaults and 21 deaths in just six years, the rising violence is more than a troubling statistic, it is a stark warning about the dangerous environment in which journalists now operate.