Telephone and telegraph communications are the responsibility of the Federal Ministry of Communications through its parastatal NITEL. As of 2000 there were an estimated 500,000 mainline telephones in service. By 2001, there were an additional 200,000 cellular phones in use. Trunk lines and UHF links connect all the major towns, and all of these have exchange units, including automatic exchanges at Lagos, Ibadan, Kaduna, Kano, Jos, and Port Harcourt. Postal services are provided by another parastatal—NIPOST. There are post offices in all 305 local-government headquarters and other major towns.
Radio broadcasting is the joint responsibility of the federal and state governments, operating under the Federal Radio Corp. of Nigeria, created in 1978; state radio stations broadcast in English and local languages. Television, introduced in 1959, now operates throughout the country under the direction of the Nigerian Television Authority, with stations in all state capitals and channels set aside for the state governments. Several states also run their own stations. In 2001, there were nine television stations and six radio stations that were privately owned. In that year, there were about 83 AM and 36 FM radio stations. In 2000, the country had 200 radios and 68 television sets for every 1,000 people. About 11 Internet service providers were serving 100,000 subscribers in 1999.
In 2002 there were 26 major daily newspapers in Nigeria, some of them published by the federal or state governments. Leading Nigerian daily newspapers (with their 2002 estimated circulations) are:
CIRCULATION | |
Daily Times (national) | 400,000 |
National Concord (Lagos) | 200,000 |
Daily Champion (Lagos) | 150,000 |
Nigerian Observer (national) | 150,000 |
The Punch (national) | 150,000 |
Nigerian Tribune (national) | 109,000 |
New Democrat (Kaduna) | 100,000 |
Nigerian Standard (Jos) | 100,000 |
New Nigerian (national) | 80,000 |
The Guardian (Lagos) | 80,000 |
The constitution provides for freedom of speech and of the press and the government generally respected these rights; however, there were problems in some areas, particularly in restrictions on anti-government reports.
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