Nuradin Hassan Ibrahim, editor of SkyFM Radio in Mogadishu was arrested on 30 March by the federal police in Mogadishu. He was questioned on how his station obtained news about a passport stolen from an official stationed at the prime minister’s office.
The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) protests the arrest of a broadcast journalist by the federal police in Mogadishu on 30 March 2014.
Nuradin Hassan Ibrahim, editor of SkyFM Radio in Mogadishu, was arrested at the Crimes Investigations Department (CID) headquarters in Mogadishu, following a summons from officials.
Nuradin has been questioned on how his station obtained news about a passport stolen from an official stationed at the Prime Minister’s office.
Nuradin reportedly answered all the questions satisfactorily, but has been arrested due to the influence of General Abdullahi Gafow, head of Immigration and Naturalization Services, who lodged the complaint against SkyFM at the CID.
“This amounts to physical intimidation of a journalist and appears to be in direct breach of Somalia’s provisional constitution. It clearly demonstrates how journalists in Somalia are soft targets for the authorities who are supposed to uphold principles of rule of law, and respect independent media to report without fear from retaliation,” said Omar Faruk Osman, Secretary General of NUSOJ.
NUSOJ calls on the Federal Police to immediately release Nuradin Hassan Ibrahim, and allow him to exercise his constitutional freedom as a citizen in general, and as a journalist in particular.
SkyFM is a sister station of Radio Shabelle, which has been subject of systematic abuses for a number of times in the last couple of years.
