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…
Radio journalists given hefty fines in Somalia, one still detained
Nairobi, March 3, 2015–A Somali court in Mogadishu on Sunday convicted one journalist of public incitement and two others of publishing false news and imposed harsh fines on them, according to news reports. The journalists are out of prison, but a fourth is still being detained, the reports said.
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…
Police beat journalists attending court case in Mogadishu
Nairobi, March 12, 2013–Somali police attacked and obstructed more than a half-dozen journalists who were seeking to cover a rape trial in Mogadishu on Saturday, as authorities continue to struggle in meeting law enforcement and free expression demands in sexual assault cases. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the attacks and calls on authorities to…
Attacks on the Press: Killed in 2012: A Worldwide Roundup
Killed in 2012: A Worldwide Roundup The number of journalists killed in the line of duty rose sharply in 2012, as the war in Syria, a record number of shootings in Somalia, continued violence in Pakistan, and a worrying increase in Brazilian murders contributed to a 49 percent increase in deaths from the previous…
UK should press Somalia on journalist’s jailing, murders
Dear Prime Minister Cameron: In anticipation of your meeting with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud next week, we would like to bring to your attention recent actions taken by the Somali government, as well as the increasing number of unsolved journalist murders in the country.