Somalia

2013

  
An image grab from a YouTube video uploaded on December 18 allegedly shows NBC employees, from left to right, Aziz Akyavas, Richard Engel, and John Kooistra in captivity in Syria. (AFP/YouTube)

Do news blackouts help journalists held captive?

At any given time over the past two years, as wars raged in Libya and then Syria, and as other conflicts ground on in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, a number of journalists have been held captive by a diverse array of forces, from militants and rebels to criminals and paramilitaries. And at any given…

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Somali Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon met February 16 with the local journalist union. (NUSOJ)

Will talk of stronger Somali justice lead to action?

Spirits of journalists in Somalia, the most dangerous country in Africa to practice the profession, were lifted slightly this week after Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon made several auspicious announcements. The key concern on the minds of journalists in the capital, Mogadishu, is access to justice–both in terms of journalists’ own court appearances and in…

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Faith in Somali judiciary hard to find as Abdiaziz jailed

“Let’s have faith in our judiciary system,” Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamed told an audience Monday at London’s Chatham House, the foreign affairs think-tank.

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Journalist Assistance helps record number in 2012

An increase in press freedom violations last year created a surge of need among journalists, driving a record number of assistance cases for CPJ’s Journalist Assistance Program in 2012. More than three-quarters of the 195 journalists who received support during the year came from East Africa and the Middle East and North Africa, reflecting the…

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2013