On August 3, 2025, police in Mogadishu detained Osman Abdullahi Mohamed and Hussein Isse Mohamed, both journalists with the privately owned SMS Somalia TV, and held them for 49 hours, according to Osman, who spoke to CPJ.
The journalists were detained outside the SMS Somalia TV headquarters according to footage reviewed by CPJ. They were arrested shortly after returning from a press conference where parliamentarians had criticized the government’s evictions of civilians in a Mogadishu neighborhood, Osman told CPJ.
A third journalist who accompanied them, Mahad Mohamed Abdirahman, with the privately owned Daash Somali TV, was also taken into custody and held briefly before he was released unconditionally.
Osman told CPJ that the officers who arrested them were heavily armed. The journalists were held at a police station in Mogadishu’s Hamar Jajab District. Police confiscated their cameras and memory cards, erasing footage. The cameras and memory cards were not returned, according to Osman.
Osman told CPJ that the journalists were released on August 5 without charge.
In August 2025, CPJ sent queries via messaging app to police spokesperson Abdifatah Adan Hassan and Information Minister Daud Aweis but received no response.