This paper offers a critical evaluation of constitutional traps along the path of press freedom in Nigeria within the framework of the global efforts aimed at the democratization of free speech. These assertions are etched in international and domestic instruments like the United Nations Declaration on Human and Peoples Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Constitution of several countries, etc. The investigation climaxes on the altar of the Constitution because it is the fundamental and organic law of the country from which all other laws derive their validity. The subject matter is analysed and discussed with the utilization of both formal and material sources of law and other literature survey. It concludes by underscoring the cold reality that the press are ‘free’ but bound in chains from a critical vista with derogable and clawback measures in the constitution strewn on the trajectory of press freedom in the country.
Keywords: Constitution, clawback measures, derogable measures, liberty of expression., press freedom
