NKRUMAH BANKONG-OBI/Lafia
A nongovernmental organisation, Accountability Lab Nigeria, has trained journalists and civil society groups in Nasarawa State on the importance of ensuring the responsible use of data by entities collecting such data. in identifying the gaps in the digital rights and freedom of expression in the country, the group called on the media and CSOs to become watchdogs in ensuring that cases of violations are brought to the fore. “Data collectors and administrators have not put out guidelines to ensure that data is safe and protected. The essence of this workshop is to ensure that journalists are properly informed about how their rights can be protected, and then they can be advocates of digital rights,” Alfred Agu, Head of Evaluation and Monitoring at Accountability Lab told the participants.
He noted that Nigerians at the grassroots are most vulnerable to this anomaly. This he said, is because they don’t know who is to be held accountable when their personal information and data rights are breached. He noted that a breach in data rights generally affects everyone. Structuring his talk on the importance of data privacy, data security and protection, Agu established that everyone has the right to know how information collected from them by the government, institutions and companies, is utilized. He noted that data privacy is important to avert the intrusion of non-state actors into data storage platforms. This will prevent identity theft, lower incidences of breaches as well as enhance regulatory compliance.
Agu called for compliance with the provisions of the Nigeria Data Protection Act, NDPA 2023 as enacted by the National Assembly. The law, he noted has safeguards for data privacy, compliance and reportage in case of breaches. In spite of the presence of the law, weak enforcement of its provisions, rise in cybercrimes and lack of connectivity with related legislations like the Cybercrime Prohibition act 2015, which was enacted to deal with issues of identity theft and unauthorized access to individual data and the Freedom of information Act have hampered the desired implementation of the law.
According to him, the NDPA mandates the establishment of a data protection commission, outlines the modalities for data collection and processing as well as penalties for individuals or organisations who violate its provisions. The newsmen were led to identify the loopholes in the Act and advance strategies for addressing them, especially in the face of the advancement resulting from the Artificial Intelligence, AI.
In another lecture titled Digital Rights, Freedom of Expression and Online Censorship, Grace Friday, a digital rights advocate led the participants to understand how journalists can avoid censorship by those who want to silence them. she noted that reporters require safe space online to function and also pick news leads and feedback. But this freedom can be affected by the purveyors of misinformation, disinformation and malinformation, aiming to discredit, misrepresent facts. She also mentioned how fake news thrives during electioneering processes and the potential for voter suppression.
She also noted the use of surveillance tools to monitor journalists and civil society groups, arrests using distorted references to the Cybercrime and FOI laws, harassments, threats from state actors and their collaborators. The increasing occurrence of online censorship is resulting the loss of confidence by the citizens to speak on issues that affect them online. She called for collective action to prevent censorship by collaborations to speak about any incident of censorship, sharing events of digital abuse with colleagues, organising local digital rights campaign advocacies and reporting to platforms that support digital rights.