Somalia

Shadows of emerging skyscrapers in a neighborhood in Nairobi come alive as the sun glides down the western horizon. I am walking down one of the deserted streets in the city’s Eastleigh shantytown. Lately, Eastleigh has become a contradiction of sorts. While the roads remain as torn as ever and clean drinking water and other social amenities remain out of reach, there is a new aura of affluence among the numerous huge buildings that seem to be coming up overnight.

Ahead of the first anniversary on Sunday, August 23, of the kidnapping in Mogadishu of Canadian Amanda Lindhout and Australian Nigel Brennan we issued the following statement today on behalf of the families of the two journalists...

Somali journalists held an emotional press conference in Mogadishu today at the Sahafi Hotel after Sunday's fatal shooting of the former director of Shabelle Media Network. (Sahafi means "journalist" in Arabic.) Roughly 15 journalists from different news outlets announced they were suspending their work because of security concerns. "We can no longer operate independently and impartially, and our lives are in danger because of the chaotic situation in our country," said a statement signed by the journalists, who were mainly editors and producers at local radio and TV stations.

Journalism conferences discussing global trends often inflate the real but intermittent risks faced by foreign correspondents from wealthier nations who travel to and report from less stable regions of the world. They do so at the expense of downplaying if not plain ignoring the much greater risks faced by local journalists who live in such areas with their families and report daily for homegrown, regional media. The Deutsche Welle annual Global Media Forum in Bonn is not one of them.

Following news that Radio Shabelle Director Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe was killed and News Editor Ahmed Omar Hashi seriously injured today by gunmen in Somalia's volatile capital, Mogadishu, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued this statement...

New York, May 26, 2009-- Following a Western news agency report in which a Canadian and Australian journalist held hostage in war-torn Mogadishu for nine months complained of poor health and urged their respective governments to help free them, CPJ issued the following statement today:

New York, May 22, 2009--Following news that Abdirisak Warsame Mohamed of Radio Shabelle was shot to death today in the crossfire of government and militia forces in the capital, Mogadishu, CPJ issued this statement:

Falastiin Iman, a former producer for the independent Somali broadcaster HornAfrik, was talking by phone on Sunday with the station's director, Said Tahlil, left. He was upbeat, she said, a mood that is not easy to come by in Mogadishu. "He was so happy that peace was finally coming to Somalia and that, miraculously, HornAfrik TV and Radio was still able to operate and report throughout all the crises." 

We issued the following statement today after the shooting Tuesday of Horn Afrik radio station director, Said Tahlil, in Mogadishu, Somalia...

On Friday, as we welcomed the release of a journalist kidnapped in Somalia, we received a compelling account from a freelance reporter working in the capital, Mogadishu. Our colleague describes the perils of working in a city where journalists operate at the mercy of warring insurgents and government troops, and throughout Somalia, one of the world's most dangerous nations for the press.