JUNE 30, 2005
Updated: July 25, 2005
Sheekh Aduun (also known as Abdirisak Omar Ismail), STN
Awale Jama, STN
Mohamed Ilke Ase, STN
IMPRISONED
Staff of STN in Bossasso
HARASSED
STN radio
CENSORED
Sheekh Aduun, director of the local radio affiliate of the private STN network, and Awale Jama, an editor at the station, were arrested on June 30 and placed in police detention in Bossasso, a city in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, according to local sources.
Puntland authorities shuttered the Bossasso station the same day, STN director Omar Nur Guutaale told CPJ from Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. In the afternoon, police brought all the rest of STN’s Bossasso staff to the same cell and held them overnight, Aduun later told CPJ. He said most of them were released the following morning but that he, Awale Jama and Ilke Ase—a reporter— were transferred to the central prison.
Local sources told CPJ that the arrests stemmed from the radio station’s reporting on the mayoral campaign in Bossasso. Police officers told the Somali Journalists Network (SOJON) that the journalists were accused of broadcasting “false information,” and that their arrests were ordered by Puntland’s public prosecutor. Jama and Aduun (whose real name is Abdirisak Omar Ismail) were imprisoned following a broadcast interview with one of the mayoral candidates, SOJON reported.
Puntland Information Minister Abdirisak Abdulle Gesod told CPJ that he was not aware of the arrests.
Aduun, Awale Jama and Ilke Ase were freed without charge on July 12.