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Reporters locked out of Nigeria's busiest airport

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The Associated Press Updated 6:36 AM Wednesday, February 8, 2012

LAGOS, Nigeria — An international watchdog says authorities have shut down a long-standing press center in Nigeria's busiest airport.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement Tuesday that authorities at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos also held equipment belonging to more than 60 journalists at the center during Saturday's lockout.

A spokesman for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria said officials of the State Security Service and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shut out the journalists without saying why it was done.

Aviation correspondent Chris Agabi told the protection group that "not even military regimes shut down" the center that has existed for more than 30 years.

Nigeria came out of a long period of military rule in 1999 and has an unbridled free press, but journalists are often harassed.

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February 08, 2012 11:30 AM EST

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