Nigeria, Nov. 25 -- Media leaders and civil society actors on Monday warned that Nigeria's independent media is facing mounting pressure, citing political ownership, weak regulation and a rapidly shrinking civic space as major threats to press freedom in the country and the wider West African region.

The concerns were raised during a panel discussion titled "Independent Media and Resilient Civic Space" at the opening of the four-day Media and Development Conference (MDC 3.0) organised by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) in Abuja on Monday.

The discussion followed a presentation of the CJID Openness Index, a subnational assessment of civic space and press freedom in Nigeria, delivered by Christiana Alonge, a pr...