Somalia / Africa

Cyberattackers used services of technology companies based in the U.S. and U.K. to target media sites from Somalia, Kosovo, and Turkmenistan, Qurium, a nonprofit hosting the sites, said Tuesday. Earlier this month, CPJ reported on how cyberattackers used a Nebraska company, RayoByte, in attempts to knock those same media sites offline, as well as at…

Nairobi, September 14, 2023—The Committee to Protect Journalists on Thursday called on Somali authorities to credibly investigate an incident in which security personnel shot at Radio Baraawe and to create safe conditions for its journalists to return to work. On the evening of August 12, Radio Baraawe director Osman Aweys Bahar heard gunshots outside the…

The cyberattack against the Somali Journalists Syndicate could not have come at a worse time. A distributed denial-of-service attack, known by its acronym DDoS, flooded the local press freedom group’s website with traffic in early August and knocked it offline. Days later, authorities arrested SJS staff member and Kaab TV editor Mohamed Ibrahim Osman Bulbul…

Nairobi, August 23, 2023—The Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday called on Somali authorities to unconditionally release journalist Mohamed Ibrahim Osman Bulbul and stop intimidating media covering the security sector. On August 17, four plain-clothed security personnel arrested Mohamed, a reporter with the privately owned broadcaster Kaab TV, at Mogadishu University, where he studies part-time,…

Nairobi, May 23, 2023—Authorities in the breakaway region of Somaliland should unconditionally release journalist Bushaaro Ali Mohamed and stop detaining members of the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. On the evening of May 15, Somaliland police arrested Bushaaro shortly after she entered the border town of Wajale from Ethiopia, according to media…

Nairobi, March 7, 2023—In response to a U.S. federal court’s conviction of two men, Mohamed Tahlil Mohamed and Abdi Yusu Hassan, in the 2012 hostage-taking of German American journalist Michael Scott Moore, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement welcoming the conviction: “The conviction of Mohamed Tahlil Mohamed and Abdi Yusuf Hassan in…

Nairobi, February 23, 2023 – In response to news reports that intelligence agents and police officers arrested freelance journalist and press freedom advocate Abdalle Ahmed Mumin on Thursday at a hotel in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement: “Somali officials are demonstrating a disgraceful willingness to abuse…

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined six other press freedom and human rights groups in a letter Monday calling on Somali authorities to drop the criminal charges filed against Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, a press freedom advocate and freelance journalist. Authorities arrested Abdalle, secretary-general of the Somali Journalists Syndicate press freedom group, on October 11, after…

Nairobi, November 2, 2022—The Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday called for accountability for the killing of broadcast journalist Mohamed Isse Hassan and the injuries suffered by two other journalists and one media worker in October 29 twin bomb blasts in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. At least 120 people were killed in two car bomb…

By Jennifer Dunham/CPJ Deputy Editorial Director No one has been held to account in nearly 80% of journalist murders during the last 10 years, CPJ’s 2022 Global Impunity Index found, and governments show little interest in tackling the issue. Published November 1, 2022 Statistical table | Methodology | Database: All journalists murdered for their work…