Said Tahlil

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Radio journalist Ahmed Omar Hashi is a survivor, but he has paid dearly. He's been threatened and targeted for death. He's seen his colleagues and friends killed. Now, like other Somali journalists, Hashi struggles in exile and hopes one day he can resume his work. By Karen Phillips

Top Developments
• Al-Shabaab terrorizes media through violence, threats, censorship.
• Many local journalists flee into exile, leaving a void in coverage.

Key Statistic
9: Journalists killed in direct relation to their work in 2009.


Somalia was among the world’s deadliest countries in 2009, surpassing violent hot spots such as Iraq and Pakistan. As conflict continued between the weak Transitional Federal Government and multiple insurgent groups, nine journalists were killed in direct connection to their work, seven of them in the volatile capital, Mogadishu. An exodus of local journalists continued throughout the year, and few international journalists dared travel into the country for firsthand reporting, according to CPJ research. As a result, the amount and quality of news coverage of Somalia’s political and humanitarian crisis suffered greatly, CPJ found.

CPJ survey finds at least 68 journalists killed in 2009

Family members of journalists killed in the Maguindanao massacre. (Reuters)

New York, December 17, 2009—At least 68 journalists worldwide were killed for their work in 2009, the highest yearly tally ever documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists, the organization said in its year-end analysis. The record toll was driven in large part by the election-related slaughter of more than 30 media workers in the Philippine province of Maguindanao, the deadliest event for the press in CPJ history.

(NUSOJ)

Hirabe, 48, was shot several times in the head by unidentified gunmen as he and a colleague, Ahmed Omar Hashi, were walking to work in the capital, local journalists told CPJ. Hashi, 41, was shot in the stomach and hand but survived. 

A veteran Radio Shabelle reporter, Hirabe took up the role as station director after the former director, Said Tahlil Ahmed, was murdered in February. A popular journalist, Hirabe had led a charity drive to help displaced Somali children in 2006. He was survived by two wives and five children.

New York, February 9, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Saturday's brutal knife attack on Hassan Bulhan, director of a local radio station in the central town of Abudwaq

GaroweFalastiin 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." 

New York, February 4, 2009--The director of HornAfrik, one of Somalia's leading radio and television stations, was killed by three masked gunmen in the Bakara Market area of Mogadishu on Tuesday afternoon, local journalists told CPJ. The assailants shot Said Tahlil repeatedly as he and six other senior journalists were walking to a meeting with members of the militant Al-Shabaab group. 

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

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