Somalia / Africa

  
Prison guards are seen at Somaliland's Hargeisa prison on March 29, 2011. Television reporter Abdirahman Keyse Mohamed was recently arrested by police in Somaliland and is being held without charge in a prison in Las Anod. (AP/Katharine Houreld)

Somaliland journalist injured during arrest, jailed without charge

Nairobi, May 17, 2019 — Authorities in the breakaway state of Somaliland should immediately release television reporter Abdirahman Keyse Mohamed, also known as Tungub, and investigate the police officer who fired a shot that injured the journalist during his arrest, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Traffic flows in Mogadishu's Hodan district in 2018. On March 30, 2019 armed men raided the offices of Somalia's Universal TV station. (Reuters/Feisal Omar)

Armed men raid Somalia’s Universal TV, fire guns in station

Nairobi, April 3, 2019–Authorities in Somalia should urgently investigate an attack on the privately-owned station Universal TV and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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A young man looks through a book at the Hargeisa International Book Fair in the Somaliland capital of Hargeisa on July 21, 2018. Somaliland authorities recently issued a one-year suspension of the privately owned Foore newspaper. (Mustafa Saeed/AFP)

Somaliland court suspends newspaper for one year for publishing ‘false news’

Nairobi, February 15, 2019–The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed deep concern about a one-year suspension imposed by a Somaliland court on the privately owned Foore newspaper, and called on authorities to drop the charges on appeal.

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Reuters journalist Kyaw Soe Oo is led handcuffed from a court in Yangon in September. He and colleague Wa Lone are serving seven-year prison sentences in Myanmar. (Reuters/Ann Wang)

Hundreds of journalists jailed globally becomes the new normal

For the third year in a row, 251 or more journalists are jailed around the world, suggesting the authoritarian approach to critical news coverage is more than a temporary spike. China, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia imprisoned more journalists than last year, and Turkey remained the world’s worst jailer. A CPJ special report by Elana Beiser

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A Somali boy, pictured in August 2018, watches as soldiers for the African Union Mission leave the Mogadishu stadium they used for years as a base. Gunmen in October shot dead a radio journalist in a town about 17km from the capital. (AFP/Mohamed Abdiwahab)

Radio journalist gunned down in Somalia

Nairobi, Kenya, October 31, 2018–Authorities in Somalia should urgently investigate the killing of radio journalist Abdullahi Mire Hashi, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. At least two unidentified gunmen shot Abdullahi in the town of Elasha Biyaha, about 17 km from the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on October 27, according to media reports and two…

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A tribute to victims of an April 2018 suicide attack in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, that killed at least nine journalists. (AP/Rahmat Gul)

Getting Away with Murder

CPJ’s 2018 Global Impunity Index spotlights countries where journalists are slain and their killers go free By Elisabeth Witchel, CPJ Impunity Campaign Consultant Impunity is entrenched in 14 nations, according to CPJ’s 2018 Global Impunity Index, which ranks states with the worst records of prosecuting the killers of journalists.

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A fisherman carries his catch near a fishing port in Mogadishu on September 14. Authorities in the Somali state of Galmudug have detained a journalist on false news allegations. (Reuters/Feisal Omar)

Somali authorities detain journalist accused of spreading ‘false news’

Nairobi, September 26, 2018–Authorities in the Somali state of Galmudug should immediately release broadcast journalist Mohamed Abdiwali Tohow without charge, the Committee to Protect Journalist said today. Intelligence personnel detained the journalist on September 22 over a report broadcast the previous day for the Mogadishu-based Radio Kulmiye, according to the station’s director, Burhan Dini Farah,…

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A general view shows people walking along a street in Galkayo on April 21, 2015. A radio reporter and photographer was killed in Galkayo on September 19, 2018. (Reuters/Feisal Omar)

Journalist dies in Puntland of injuries sustained in knife attack

Nairobi, September 21, 2018–Police in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region in Somalia, should rigorously investigate the killing of Abdirisak Said Osman, a reporter and photographer with the privately owned radio station Codka Nabada, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Somali police at a ceremony in Mogadishu on December 20, 2017, to mark the 74th anniversary of the formation of the police force. Abdirizak Kasim Iman, a cameraperson for the privately owned SBS TV, was shot dead in Mogadishu on the afternoon of July 26, 2018, according to news reports. (AP/Farah Abdi Warsameh)

Somali cameraperson shot dead in Mogadishu

Nairobi, July 31, 2018–Authorities in Somalia should rigorously investigate the killing of Abdirizak Kasim Iman, a cameraperson for the privately owned SBS TV, who was shot dead in Mogadishu on the afternoon of July 26, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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President Muse Bihi Abdi addresses a press conference in Hargeisa, Somaliland, in November 2017. Muse Bihi's government suspended critical daily newspaper Waaberi, claiming problems with its ownership registration. (AFP)

Somaliland bans operations of privately owned newspaper

New York, June 21, 2018–Authorities in the breakaway state of Somaliland should immediately lift a ban on the operations of Waaberi newspaper, a privately owned daily, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. A Hargeisa regional court issued an order suspending the newspaper on June 19 on allegations of improper registration, according to a statement…

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