New York, February 20, 2007— Somalia’s UN-backed transitional government on Monday said they would censor three private broadcasters over their coverage of deadly unrest in the capital Mogadishu, according to news reports and local journalists. At least 12 people died and thousands fled the city on Monday after fierce artillery exchanges between Ethiopian-backed government troops…
SOMALIA The killing of a Swedish photojournalist at a pro-government rally in Mogadishu underscored the dangers faced by journalists covering renewed political turmoil in Somalia, which has had no effective central administration since the fall of dictator Siad Barre in 1991. Against a background of military conflict between the U.N.-backed transitional government and the Islamic…
New York, January 18, 2007–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the ruling by a court in the northern breakaway republic of Somaliland on Wednesday to try three jailed journalists under archaic criminal laws in connection with a story critical of the president. A regional court in the capital, Hargeysa, ruled that editor Ali Abdi Dini,…
New York, January 16, 2007—Four private broadcasters returned to the air today, a day after being shut down by Somalia’s U.N.-backed transitional government, according to local journalists and the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ). HornAfrik radio and television, Radio Shabelle, Radio IQK (Holy Quran Radio), and Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television resumed broadcasting after a closed-door…
New York, January 4, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by reports that Somalia’s transitional government in the southern city of Baidoa detained a radio reporter covering fighting between government forces and Islamist militiamen. Local journalists and the National Union of Somali Journalists said Hassan Mohammed Abikar, a correspondent for the Mogadishu-based private radio…
New York, January 3, 2007—Police in the northern self-declared republic of Somaliland stormed the offices of the Somali-language daily Haatuf late Tuesday and seized two journalists over an article alleging corruption by the president’s wife, according to local media reports and local journalists. Managing editor Yusuf Abdi Gabobe and editor Ali Abdi Dini have been…