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UN Condemns Killing Of 59 Media Workers
The United Nations has condemned the killings of “at least, 59 media workers in 2020”.
The UN said there was need to stand up for access to information and factual reporting “as a public good”.
On average, over the past decade, one journalist has lost their life every four days, according to the UN Educational, Scientific Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in a statement.
Although 2020 saw one of the lowest tolls in years, UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, said that “rarely, if ever, had journalism been so relevant to democracy and to the protection of human rights, as the world continues battling the Coronavirus and the ‘infodemic’ that surrounds it”.
The pandemic has been a “perfect storm” that has affected press freedom worldwide, Azoulay said, adding that “protecting journalism is protecting the truth”.
With 22 killings each, Latin America and the Caribbean, together with Asia and the Pacific, registered the highest number of fatalities among journalists.
This was followed by the Arab States Region with nine deaths and Africa with six.
Impunity for crimes against journalists has continued to prevail in nearly nine out of 10 cases, despite a small improvement in 2020, UNESCO said.
The 2020 UNESCO Director-General’s Report on the “Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity”, published to coincide with the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, provided insight into the patterns of killings of journalists over the past two years, the statement said.
The launch of the report was accompanied by a high-impact global awareness-raising campaign from UNESCO, Protect Journalists, Protect the Truth.
“All too many killings still occur and non-fatal attacks and harassment continue to soar. 2020 brought to the fore the dangers facing journalists as they report on protests such as Black Lives Matter demonstrations and other movements around the world”, UNESCO said.
Earlier this year, the agency identified 125 protests in 65 countries at which journalists were attacked or arrested, between January 1, 2015 and June 30, 2020.
Twenty-one of these events took place during the first half of 2020, but the number of incidents has gone on rising during the second half of the year.
Additionally, said UNESCO, the safety of women journalists remains a major source of concern.
“Targeted for their profession and gender, women journalists are particularly affected by online harassment and gender-based violence.”
Challenges to the safety of journalists were exacerbated by Covid-19, the statement said.
“The crisis it unleashed has threatened the very viability and survival of professional media outlets, due to the associated advertising revenue loss, creating an even more precarious environment for media workers with new challenges to their right to seek, receive and impart information.”
Additionally, in many countries, emergency legislation and measures adopted to curtail the spread of the virus have served as an alibi to restrict freedom of expression and of the press, the agency noted.
Journalists have also been prosecuted for exposing the failings in how governments have handled the pandemic.
Together, these conditions have formed what many have called a “perfect storm”, UNESCO added, leading to fear that the profession of journalism risks facing “extinction”, as noted in the agency’s brief Journalism, Press Freedom and Covid-19.
Nigerians may experience an increase in the prices of premium energy products diesel and petrol as the Dangote Petroleum Refinery temporarily halts the sale of petroleum products in Naira.
“This decision is necessary to avoid a mismatch between our sales proceeds and our crude oil purchase obligations, which are currently denominated in US dollars,” the company said in a statement yesterday.
The $20billion refinery based in Lagos said the sales of its products in Naira have exceeded the value of Naira-denominated crude it has received from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
“As a result, we must temporarily adjust our sales currency to align with our crude procurement currency,” the company explained.
The refinery said it remained committed to serving the Nigerian market and would resume the sale of its product to the local market in Naira as soon as it received crude cargoes from the NNPCL in Naira.
“As soon as we receive an allocation of Naira-denominated crude cargoes from NNPC, we will promptly resume petroleum product sales in Naira,” it said.
The announcement by the refinery comes amid its price war with the NNPCL.
As part of moves to reduce the strain on the US dollars, and guarantee price stability of petroleum products, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in July 2024, directed the NNPCL to sell crude oil to Dangote Refinery and other local refineries in naira and not in United States’ greenback.
In the beginning of March 2025, the NNPCL said its Naira-denominated crude sales agreement with the Dangote Refinery was structured for six months with March 2025 as the expiration date.
The state company, however, said that talks were on to replace the contract, and that over 48 million barrels of crude oil have been made available to Dangote Refinery since October 2024 under the Naira-denominated arrangement.
The NNPCL also said it had made over 84 million barrels of crude oil available to the private refinery since it commenced operations in 2023.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, faces energy challenges, with all its state-owned refineries non-operational for decades until 2024. The country was heavily reliant on imported refined petroleum products, with the state-run NNPCL being the major importer of the essential commodities.
Fuel queues are commonplace in the country. Prices of petrol more than quadrupled since the removal of subsidy in May 2023 by President Bola Tinubu, from around ¦ 200/litre to about ¦ 1,000/litre, compounding the woes of the citizens who power their vehicles, and generating sets with petrol, no thanks to decades-long epileptic electricity supply.
Last December, the billionaire industrialist commenced operations at the facility situated in Lagos with 350,000 barrels a day. The refinery, which was initially bogged by regulatory battles, hopes to achieve its full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day by the end of the year. The refinery has begun the supply of diesel and aviation fuel to marketers in the country and now petrol.
Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna has overtaken Egypt’s Omar Assar to become Africa’s highest-ranked player in the world, now sitting at 18th in the week 12 ranking released on Tuesday.
Aruna moved up from 19th place in week 11 to 18th in the latest ranking, while Assar dropped from 17th to 19th.
Denmark’s Jonathan Groth took over Assar’s 17th place, moving up from 18th.
Despite finishing as runner-up at the 2025 ITTF Africa Cup, Aruna’s impressive performances at the WTT tournaments this year have boosted his ranking.
Aruna remains the only African male player to have reached the semi-finals of the WTT Contender Doha, repeating his 2023 feat earlier this year in January.
This achievement has propelled him ahead of Assar, who beat him to become the champion of the 2025 ITTF Africa Cup.
Aruna’s next tournament is the WTT Contender Chennai which serves off in India from March 23 to 20.
In the women’s singles, Egypt’s Hana Goda maintained her top spot in Africa, moving up one place to 26th in the week 12 ITTF ranking. Her compatriot, Dina Meshref, remained static at 33rd, holding her position as the second-best-ranked female player in Africa.
China’s Wang Chuqin retained his position as the second-best player globally, behind his compatriot Lin Shidong, who continues to hold the top spot. Japanese superstar Tomokazu Harimoto dethroned China’s Liang Jingkun as the third-best player in the world after his semifinal finish in Chongqing.
In the women’s ranking, the top five remained unchanged, with China’s Sun Yingsha holding onto her top spot after retaining her WTT Champions Chongqing title.