Emerging Issues in Online Media and Media Laws in Nigeria
Keywords:
Online media, media laws, newspaper, social mediaAbstract
Since 1903 there have been press laws aimed at controlling the press in Nigeria. These press laws have been in existence for over 100 years, but with the emergence of online media, the equilibrium of the media laws have been upset given the peculiarities of the new media. This work therefore seeks to
identify the emerging issues in online media and media laws in Nigeria. The issues identified cover registration, regulation, implementation of existing laws with regards to online media, jurisdiction, identification of offenders and responsibility for contents in online media. The study concludes that online media pose new challenges to existing media laws in Nigeria and that the existing media laws in Nigeria were meant to regulate analog media and also incapable of regulating online media. Hence, it recommends the establishment of new legal and regulatory framework for online media to avoid the resort to extra-legal measures by government in dealing with issues related to online media practice.
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