Attackers shoot journalist in Somalia
New York, September 15, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Wednesday evening shooting of a Somali radio journalist in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, and calls on the government to immediately take steps to bring the perpetrators to justice. Unknown gunmen shot 20-year-old radio journalist Horriyo Abdulkadir Sheik Ali four times on Wednesday evening…
A Somali journalist still gets taunting threats in exile
It was February 2008 when Bahjo Mohamud Abdi received her first anonymous phone call. It was a man’s voice asking her to confirm who she was. Abdi was a presenter and correspondent for the state radio in Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland. Abdi confirmed her identity and thought no more about it. But then she…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Somalia
Top Developments • Africa’s most dangerous country for the press. Two journalists killed in 2010. • Al-Shabaab shuts downs, seizes control of major radio stations. Key Statistic 59: Somali journalists in exile, the second largest press diaspora in the world. Ethiopians constitute the largest. Somalia remained Africa’s most dangerous country for the press. Two journalists…
‘A Somali journalist’s life is short anyways’
In August, Shabelle Media Network, one of Somalia’s leading independent broadcasters, did something incredibly brave–they rebroadcast news and music that the BBC’s Somali-language service beams to the war-torn Horn of African nation in defiance of a ban imposed by hard-line militant Islamist rebel groups Al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam. For Somali journalists, who risk death by crossfire and assassination, and censorship from both…
Somaliland elections and coverage surprisingly…normal
Critical voices in the East African media—whether in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, or Uganda—have been intimidated, banned, blocked, and beaten prior to elections in recent years. Somalia is so embroiled in conflict that even the concept of having elections remains a faraway dream. But in late June, the semi-autonomous region of Somaliland in northern Somalia managed to hold relatively peaceful and free elections with decent media…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Somalia
Top Developments• Al-Shabaab terrorizes media through violence, threats, censorship.• Many local journalists flee into exile, leaving a void in coverage. Key Statistic9: Journalists killed in direct relation to their work in 2009. Somalia was among the world’s deadliest countries in 2009, surpassing violent hot spots such as Iraq and Pakistan. As conflict continued between the…
Somali radio station and TV satellite destroyed; one dead
New York, December 21, 2009—Mortar shells destroyed the Radio Voice of Democracy building this morning in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, killing Amal Abukar, 22, the wife of the director of the station, Abdirahman Yasin. Abukar died instantly after three mortar shells landed on the station’s building in northern Mogadishu at 10:30 a.m., local journalists told CPJ. Yasin and a producer, Adam Hussein,…
Two Somali journalists injured in separate shootings
New York, November 18, 2009—Two Somali correspondents for international media outlets were injured in separate shootings, one in the northeast semi-autonomous region of Puntland, and the other in the capital, Mogadishu, according to local journalists and news reports.
A journalist in the hands of Somali pirates
Shadows of emerging skyscrapers in a neighborhood in Nairobi come alive as the sun glides down the western horizon. I am walking down one of the deserted streets in the city’s Eastleigh shantytown. Lately, Eastleigh has become a contradiction of sorts. While the roads remain as torn as ever and clean drinking water and other…
Attacks on the Press in 2008: Somalia
Anarchic violence gripped a nation sadly accustomed to chaos and suffering as a weak federal government sought to fend off insurgencies in the south and central parts of the country. Two reporters were killed in the southern port city of Kismayo in 2008, continuing a national pattern of violence against the press that has claimed…