The Effect of Media Laws on Nigeria Print Media

ABSTRACT Media laws are not new to the Nigerian press. What is new is the ways in which various governments and individuals try to hide under some of these laws to cripple the job of the Nigerian journalists. This is the main thrust behind this research which is centered on finding the effects of press laws on journalistic practice in Nigeria with a view to unraveling those laws that tends to reduce the power of journalists with a study on three newspapers in PortHarcourt in the South-South Region of Nigeria. The study adopted the survey method using three hundred media personnel as its respondents. Findings from the study indicates that the Nigerian media landscape still groans under the hard effects of obnoxious press laws and this has also affected the moral and ethical standard of the profession. The officials secrets act remains the greatest fear of the Nigerian journalists and the provision of the Nigerian 1999 constitution was found to be contradictory. Various literatures on the subject of research were also reviewed in the cause of the research. Suggestion were made for further research.