Somalia

(NUSOJ/IFEX) – The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) strongly condemns the arrest of journalist Idle Moallim in Bossasso on 5 January 2008 by the police force of Puntland Regional State. Idle Moallim, a freelance journalist, was arrested when the Puntland police asked him several times where he came from and what reports he had […]

(NUSOJ/IFEX) – The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) is concerned over the safety of journalists due to a fresh wave of attacks against journalists since the beginning of 2008. Journalist Mohammed Shidane Daban was arrested on 4 January at Mogadishu’s Aden Adde International Airport by Transitional Federal Government security forces. Mohammed Shidane, who works […]

(NUSOJ/IFEX) – The following is a 30 December 2007 NUSOJ press release: Targeting Truth Tellers: Journalism in a Climate of Fear and Intimidation Annual Report of Press Freedom Violations The freedom of the press situation in Somalia deteriorated considerably in 2007, as violence against journalists and media workers – such as killings, detentions, acts of […]

(NUSOJ/IFEX) – NUSOJ welcomes the release of French journalist Gwen Le Gouil who was kidnapped on 16 December 2007 by gunmen in Port town of Bossasso, the capital of Bari region in north-eastern Somalia. The kidnappers handed the journalist over on the evening of 24 December to two traditional elders – Abdulkadir Ahmed Ibrahim and […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF condemns the 26 December 2007 arbitrary closure of the privately-owned radio station Somaliweyn by the government of Banadir, the province that includes the capital Mogadishu, after the station broadcast an interview in which an exile politician explained why he was joining the radical, armed wing of the opposition. The closure is the […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a CPJ 27 December 2007 press release: Somali journalist held without charge New York, December 27, 2007 – A reporter who took photographs of French journalist Gwen LeGouil in custody with his kidnappers in Somalia’s semi-autonomous northeastern region of Puntland has been detained since Sunday without charge, local journalists told […]

(NUSOJ/IFEX) – NUSOJ strongly condemns the kidnapping of French journalist Gwen Le Gouil on 16 December 2007, by unidentified gunmen in the port town of Bossasso, the capital of Bari region in north-eastern Somalia. According to journalists and news reports, cameraman Le Gouil arrived in Bossasso on 15 December from Mogadishu. He was kidnapped by […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 5 December 2007 CPJ press release: Somaliland expels 24 journalists New York, December 5, 2007 – CPJ condemns the Somaliland authorities’ decision to expel 24 Somali journalists from Hargeisa, the capital of the northern breakaway republic. The group had recently fled there to escape ongoing persecution in Mogadishu, Somalia. […]

(NUSOJ/IFEX) – NUSOJ calls on Somaliland authorities to stop forcing out Somali journalists who fled from the mayhem and violence in Mogadishu – from targeted attacks on journalists and media in particular – and who sought protection in Somaliland because they were at risk of suffering grave human rights violations. On 4 December 2007, the […]

(RSF/IFEX) – New draconian restrictions on the coverage of fighting between government forces and rebels by the few media still operating in the capital are “unacceptable,” RSF said on 28 November 2007. The restrictions were ordered on 26 November by Mogadishu mayor Mohamed Omar Habeb, a former warlord and governor of the central city of […]

(NUSOJ/IFEX) – NUSOJ protests the 26 November 2007 arrest of journalists Abdiqani Hassan Farah and Mohammed Shakale in Las Anod town of Sool region. Somaliland armed forces arrested the two journalists separately in the city centre of Las Anod, according to news reports and journalists in Las Anod who reported to NUSOJ. The motive behind […]

(NUSOJ/IFEX) – The Somaliland Ministry of Information has drafted and proposed a new media law that undermines internationally accepted standards of freedom of expression. The new draft law increases the powers of the Ministry of Information to control the media. It also gives the Minister of Information the power to suspend media organizations, arrest journalists […]

(NUSOJ/IFEX) – The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) expresses its deep concern over the increasing dangers confronted by Somali journalists and the growing clampdown on the operations of the media in Mogadishu. The shutdown of three well-known, privately-owned radio stations – Shabelle, Simba and Banadir – by the security forces of the Transitional Federal […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 13 November 2007 CPJ press release: Somali government silences three radio stations in two days New York, November 13, 2007 – Somalia’s U.S. and Ethiopian-backed government has forced three prominent private radio stations off the air since Monday over their coverage of the bloody conflict centered in Mogadishu, according […]

(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders firmly condemns the arbitrary closure of Mogadishu’s embattled Radio Shabelle by the security forces on 12 November 2007, as a major sweep got under way against Islamist insurgents in the nearby Bakara market. “The contempt displayed by the Somali authorities for independent news media has reached a new level with […]

(HRW/IFEX) – The following is a 22 October 2007 Human Rights Watch press release: Somalia: Killings, Arrests Shatter Independent Media Transitional Government Must Protect Journalists, Respect Free Expression (New York, October 22, 2007) – The Somali government’s systematic harassment of journalists, its closures of media outlets, and its failure to investigate the killing of eight […]