New York, December 18, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by an upsurge in arrests and the harassment of journalists by rival groups battling for control of Somalia. Both the Islamists who hold Mogadishu and the U.N.-backed transitional government based in Baidoa, northwest of the capital, have cracked down on the press this month.…
November 24, 2006 Posted December 8, 2006 Abdulahi Yasin Jama, Radio Warsan and Somali Broadcasting Corporation IMPRISONED Jama, a reporter for the private, Baidoa-based Radio Warsan and the private, Bossasso-based Somali Broadcasting Corporation, was arrested by authorities of the transitional federal government after being summoned to the presidential palace in Baidoa, according to local journalists.…
New York, December 4, 2006—Authorities in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in northeast Somalia have arrested a correspondent for a private radio station in the Islamist-controlled capital Mogadishu, according to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) and local journalists. Puntland supports the weak, U.N.-backed interim government which is in conflict with the Islamists controlling…
New York, October 25, 2006—Security agents for Somalia’s transitional federal government arrested three radio journalists on Tuesday near the southern city of Baidoa, where the government is based. Transitional government security services were still holding Fahad Mohammed Abukar of Baidoa-based Warsan Radio, Mohammed Adawe Adam of Mogadishu-based Radio Shabelle, and Muktar Mohammed Atosh of Mogadishu-based…
New York, September 29, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm today at the closure by Islamist militiamen of a radio station in southern Somalia and the questioning of three journalists. The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) said two other journalists had gone into hiding. The militias closed HornAfrik Radio, a prominent private radio…
New York, September 11, 2006—Islamist authorities detained a journalist for two days and shut an independent radio station for a similar period in separate incidents this weekend, according to news reports and the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ). In Beledweyne, a western town controlled by the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), authorities jailed journalist Osman…
New York, August 4, 2006—Unidentified gunmen today ambushed leaders of the National Union of Somali Journalists on the road from Baidoa to Mogadishu, fatally shooting their driver, Madey Garas, according to NUSOJ Secretary-General Omar Faruk Osman. Another NUSOJ official who was in the car, Fahad Mohammed Abukar, was injured in the attack. “Our hearts go…
July 13, 2006 Abdikarim Omar Moallim, Radio Banadir HARASSED, CENSORED Moallim, a correspondent in Jowhar for private station Radio Banadir, was briefly detained by the Islamist-controlled administration of the region and banned from continuing to work for the station, according to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ). Moallim told NUSOJ that the ban stemmed…