Day 7: Freelancers hostage in Somalia
Today marks the seventh day that four media workers have been held hostage by an unknown group roughly 12 miles (20 kilometers) west of Mogadishu. Freelance journalists Amanda Lindhout, Nigel Brennan, and Abdifatah Mohamed Elmi, along with driver Mahad Clise, were returning from interviews with Somali refugees at Celasha Biyaha when they were kidnapped along…
Three journalists detained by security forces across Somalia
New York, January 7, 2008—Police arrested freelance journalist Idle Moallim on Sunday in the northeastern city of Bossasso in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, local journalists told CPJ. Police arrested Moallim for “misreporting” a story on human trafficking in Bossasso and are holding him at Bossasso central prison, according to local journalists. Moallim is a…
Attacks on the Press 2007: Somalia
Attacks had become so pervasive in this conflict-riven state that the National Union of Somali Journalists described 2006 as “the most dangerous year for press freedom for more than a decade.” Then came 2007–a year in which conditions grew dramatically worse. With seven journalists killed in direct relation to their work, Somalia was the deadliest…
Security forces arrest two Somaliweyn Radio staff
New York, January 14, 2008—National security agents for the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia arrested two journalists for the independent, Mogadishu-based Somaliweyn Radio on Sunday. According to Somaliweyn Radio sources, security agents seized reporter Bashir Mohammed Abdulkadir at the station and took him to National Security Agency headquarters for questioning. Local journalists said the arrests…
Three journalists detained by security forces across Somalia
New York, January 7, 2008—Police arrested freelance journalist Idle Moallim on Sunday in the northeastern city of Bossasso in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, local journalists told CPJ. Police arrested Moallim for “misreporting” a story on human trafficking in Bossasso and are holding him at Bossasso central prison, according to local journalists. Moallim is a…
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 CPJ. Awale Jama Salad, a freelance journalist based in the port city of Bossasso, exclusively met with LeGouil and…
Somali journalist killed in car accident
New York, December 26, 2007— The Committee to Protect Journalists extends its condolences to the colleagues and family of Abdulkadir Ali Hosh, an online journalist based in Somalia’s semi-autonomous northeastern region of Puntland, who died in the line of duty in a car accident on Monday evening. Hosh, 40, editor of the Somali news Web site…
Police fire on Somalia’s Radio Shabelle
New York, September 18, 2007—CPJ condemns the attack by Somali security forces on the Radio Shabelle compound this morning. Forces opened fire on the building with staff inside, forcing the station off the air.According to local journalists, police fired repeatedly from 10 a.m. to noon at the doors and windows at the compound while staff…
Somalia’s Shabelle radio network raided; 19 staffers detained
New York, September 17, 2007—Members of the Somali Transitional National Government security forces raided the Radio Shabelle office in the capital, Mogadishu, Saturday morning and detained 19 staff members. The security forces accused the journalists of throwing a grenade at a police patrol, reported one of the detained staffers.
Somali government detains Mogadishu reporter covering security sweep
New York, September 14, 2007—Police have detained a journalist who was reporting on a security operation undertaken by Somalia’s Ethiopian-backed government in the capital, Mogadishu, according to the National Union of Somali Journalists and local news reports. Mohamed Hussein Jimaale, a correspondent of the Puntland-based news Web site Puntlandpost, was among some 70 people…