Court sentences man in murders of five Somali journalists
New York, March 4, 2016 — A military court in Mogadishu on Thursday found Hassan Hanafi, a former journalist, guilty of direct or indirect involvement in the killing five journalists on behalf of the armed militant group Al-Shabaab, according to news reports. The court sentenced him to death by execution, which in Somalia is usually…
Authorities arrest Shabelle Media Network journalists, close station again
Nairobi, April 7, 2015–Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency raided the Shabelle Media Network offices on April 3, arrested staff and shuttered the privately owned stations Radio Shabelle and Sky FM, according to local journalists. The raid came after the network aired a clip of the militant group Al-Shabab claiming responsibility for the attack on…
Somali authorities detain three journalists and shutter radio station
Nairobi, August 21, 2014 — The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about the detention of three Shabelle Media Network journalists and the closure of their station. Security agents arrested 19 individuals at the network’s offices in the capital Mogadishu on August 15, and removed the transmitters of Radio Shabelle and Sky FM, two…
Somali police should release Sky FM journalist
Nairobi, March 31, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Somali authorities in the capital, Mogadishu, to release a radio journalist who has been held without charge since Sunday. Nuradin Hassan is an editor of Sky FM, as well as a news presenter, according to news reports and Sky FM.
Somali journalists arrested after airing rape allegations
Nairobi, November 21, 2013–Somali authorities arrested two journalists, one of them the victim of an alleged rape, on Wednesday in Mogadishu, the capital, and charged them with defamation in connection with a report on the alleged rape, according to news reports and local journalists.
Shabelle off air and staff evicted, fearing for safety
The young staff members of Radio Shabelle, whose offices were in the relatively safe section of Mogadishu next to the airport, are no longer feeling safe. On Saturday, while presenters were on the air, heavily armed security forces raided the Shabelle offices and arrested the three-dozen staff members at gunpoint, according to a statement by…
As impunity reigns in Somalia, president takes note
In October, two gunmen shot Shabelle Media Network reporter Mohamed Mohamud as he left a mosque one evening; he died from the gunshot wounds less than one week later. Several members of the Somali armed forces who happened to be at the scene opened fire on his assailants, local journalists said, but Mohamed’s killers have…
In Somalia, journalist killed in Mogadishu
Nairobi, May 24, 2012–Assailants in Mogadishu today gunned down the host of a critical radio program, further punctuating what has already been a deadly year for the Somali press corps and for the journalist’s employer, the Shabelle Media Network. Four unidentified men fired repeatedly at Ahmed Addow Anshur at around 1:45 this afternoon while he was…
