Sowore Omoyele runs a website called Sahara Reporters, reporting on news and current affairs in Nigeria. In May 2008 he reported allegations that the Attorney-General had received a bribe of US$10 million to settle a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and that the bribe had been channeled through his brother, Paul Orhii, who was living in Texas. In response, Mr Orhii (who has since been appointed Director-General of the Nigerian Food and Drug Administration) launched a US$25 million defamation suit in Texas against Omoyele. Having been contacted on Omoyele’s behalf by the Committee to Protect Journalists, the MLDI identified a respected Texas media lawyer who was willing to take the case on a pro bono basis, and helped with the expenses.
Recent News
We’re recruiting: Legal Officer
About Media Defence Media Defence is a charity that helps media to defend their rights. We support independent media, journalists and citizen journalists who are under legal threat by making sure that lawyers are available to defend them. We engage in strategic litigation to improve the regulatory environment for media freedom, make grants to organisations […]
Les lois sur les “fake news” sont-elles le meilleur moyen de lutter contre la désinformation?
En décembre 2021, la Grèce a rejoint la liste croissante des pays qui légifèrent contre les “fausses nouvelles” (ou « fake news » en anglais). La modification du code pénal vise à poursuivre les citoyens grecs qui diffusent de fausses informations pendant la pandémie de COVID-19. Tout citoyen diffusant de fausses informations sur la santé publique risque […]
Our Journalist Impact Survey 2022
“If i didn’t have Media Defence’s support, I would have been condemned .” – Journalist supported by Media Defence in 2022. In 2022, we carried out our sixth annual Journalist Impact Survey to look at the longer-term impact of our support to journalists. We designed our Journalist Impact Survey to understand the quality of our […]