Nigerian Guild of Editors, has advised aggrieved persons and organisations to channel their grievances to appropriate authorities rather than resort to arrest of journalists in the country.

While calling for caution, the group condemned the recent arrest and detention of the publisher of Premium Times, an online publication, Dapo Olorunyomi, and his judiciary correspondent, Evelyn Okakwu, by the police.

Its President, Funke Egbemode, and General Secretary, Victoria Ibanga, described the action of the police as “unwarranted assault on the freedom of the press and undue interference”.

According to them, the recent siege on Premium Times was avoidable if grievances were channelled to the appropriate quarters for redress rather subjecting journalists to “inhuman treatment for exercising their Constitutional right to freedom”.

Olorunyomi and Okakwu were arrested by the police in Abuja last thursday, in connection with a report that the Nigerian Army considered “offensive and libellous”, but they were later released.

Egbemode said the group gathered reliably that the police were acting on a criminal complaint filed by the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai, saying the Army chief “alleged that Premium Times had defamed him by its coverage of military operations against Boko Haram’’.

She noted with concern “the growing clampdown, intimidation and frequent harassment of journalists by the police and other law enforcement agencies in the course of doing their lawful duties”, saying it was important to let overzealous security agencies know that harassment of media professionals was inappropriate and capable of creating tension in an already tensed nation.

According to her, it is an unkind reminder of the dark days of military rule, which witnessed concerted efforts to gag the press through unlawful detention of journalists without trial, saying wielding the big stick and raiding newsrooms at will in a democratic setting were conducts of poor judgment and sad ways of reminding Nigerians of those days they would rather forget.

Egbemode stressed the need for all security agencies to strengthen the symbiotic relationship between the media and security so as to promote peace and help both parties do their jobs effectively.

She thanked all those who caused the release of the affected journalists and promised to defend democracy within the confines of what is right and lawful, calling on all media professionals in the country to continue to lay much emphasis on things that “unite them rather than things that divide them.