New York, April 23, 2007—Two private broadcast stations were destroyed and several journalists were injured last week as Ethiopian troops backing Somalia’s transitional government attacked suspected strongholds of Islamist fighters and militiamen from the Hawiye clan, according to news reports and local journalists. HornAfrik television and radio—the first independent broadcaster in Somalia’s history— has been…
New York, April 11, 2007— Three journalists of Somali-language international broadcaster Universal Television were arrested in the capital Mogadishu in connection with questions they asked during a presidential interview, according to local journalists. On Sunday, director Abdulkader Ashir Nadara, reporter Bashir Dirie Naleye, and cameraman Hamud Mohammed Osman of the London-based satellite network were exclusively…
New York, March 23, 2007— The bureau of satellite television Al-Jazeera in the capital Mogadishu was indefinitely shuttered on Thursday following an order from intelligence officials of Somalia’s Ethiopian-backed transitional government, according to news reports. The bureau of the Qatar-based broadcaster was “effectively closed” today after the station received a letter from the transitional government’s…
New York, March 21, 2007— Somali government troops today arrested a reporter and a driver of a leading independent broadcaster in the capital Mogadishu as they arrived to cover an official press conference at the city’s airport, according to local journalists and the National Union of Somali Journalists. Shabelle Radio reporter Mohammed Bashir and driver…
UPDATE March 18, 2007 Original Alert: January 14, 2007 Hassan Sade Dhaqane, HornAfrik radio IMPRISONED Dhaqane, a reporter of private HornAfrik radio, was released without charge after being held incommunicado by security forces of Somalia’s transitional federal government for nine days, local journalists told CPJ. Local media organized to demand his release, they said.
MARCH 15, 2007 Posted March 28, 2007 Abdul-Qani Ahmed Askar, freelance HARASSED Askar, a freelance reporter with the private Geeska Afrika and the leading independent daily Haatuf, was arrested by police on the orders of the state prosecutor, according to local journalists.
New York, March 14, 2007—A reporter for a leading broadcaster in the capital Mogadishu, has been jailed incommunicado since Friday by Somalia’s Ethiopian-backed transitional government while reporting on a story, local journalists told CPJ. Hassan Sade Dhaqane of private HornAfrik radio, the country’s first independent broadcaster, was arrested by three security agents while reporting on…
New York, March 5, 2007—Four journalists of a leading independent daily in the northern breakaway republic of Somaliland were sentenced to prison on Sunday, and their paper’s publication license indefinitely revoked over stories critical of President Dahir Rayale Kahin, according to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) and news reports. Haatuf publisher Yusuf Abdi…