by Thinus Ferreira
As public protests spread in Nigeria, protesters have set fire to the building of the TVC News channel in Lagos, Nigeria that was forced off air, while the Channels TV channel soon afterwards also shut down due to what it called credible threats of an "imminent attack on our staff and operations".
Angry and fearful Nigerians have been demonstrating for the past 2 weeks against the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) police unit that Nigerians accuse of gross extortion, harassment, torture, police brutality and murder.
On social media Nigeria's protests have been trending under the hashtag of #EndSARS.
According to Amnesty International security forces in Nigeria have killed at least 38 people at the Lekki Tollgate after indiscriminately firing on thousands of protesters in Lagos on Tuesday.
Violent protesters, as well as Nigerian soldiers, have harassed and attacked TV news crews from multiple TV channels in Nigeria.
Public protest action in Nigeria dramatically escalated after Nigerian security forces shot and killed dozens of protesters in the Lekki suburb on Tuesday evening.
Nigerians have been demonstrating nationwide every day for nearly two weeks against the police unit that rights groups had for years accused of extortion, harassment, torture, and murders.
The TVC News building in Ikosi-Ketu in Lagos was attacked on Wednesday and set alight. Besides the building, several cars, equipment as well as several outside broadcast (OB) news vehicles were set alight and burnt out as well. Several vehicles not burnt were destroyed.
What’s left after thugs attacked TVC news pic.twitter.com/A6O3ykNW6l
— Naija wants to #EndSARS (@Naija_PR) October 22, 2020
TVC stopped posting news on Twitter and its YouTube live stream broadcast abruptly ceased following the fire.
TVC News is owned by Continental Broadcasting Service Nigeria Ltd. and the channel is carried by pay-TV services in NIgeria like MultiChoice's DStv, as well as China's StarTimes.
The Channels TV channel meanwhile abruptly stopped broadcasting on Wednesday afternoon soon after TVC News started to burn.
Channels, carried on MultiChoice's DStv and GOtv in Nigeria, simply showed the channel logo and ran an on-air scroll simply saying "Channels Television is temporarily shutting down due to imminent attack on our staff and operations".
Channels later switched to recorded rebroadcasts.
Lagos Television (LTV) was apparently also attacked, while the offices of The Nation newspaper was set alight as well.
Reporters of African Independent Television (AIT) and Silverbird Television were reportedly harassed while trying to cover the unfolding protests in Nigeria, while Toyin Yusuf, a journalist with Osun State Broadcasting Corporation was attacked.
Meanwhile Nigerian soldiers prevented a TV news crew from Arise TV from covering the news at the Lekki Tollgate.
