The International Press Institute (IPI) today expressed concern over Somalia’s detention of an Al Jazeera English correspondent and two cameramen, even as it welcomed the release of the editor-in-chief of one of Somalia’s oldest daily newspapers who was detained on Saturday.
Officers of Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) arrested Al Jazeera English correspondent Hamza Mohamed and the two cameramen in the capital Mogadishu yesterday.
The journalists for the Qatar-based television channel had been covering an assault by the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab on the town of Afgoye, about 30 kilometres southwest of Mogadishu. Two of their drivers were released after questioning.
In separate news, authorities released Abdi Aden Guled, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Xog Ogaal, without charge from Mogadishu’s Godka Jilacow prison at 8:30 p.m. local time yesterday.
Guled was detained on Saturday night when heavily-armed NISA officers raided Xog Ogaal’s Mogadishu offices, confiscating computers, cameras, printing equipment and archives. Authorities did not disclose the reason for the raid or for Guled’s arrest at the time and no warrants were shown, the paper’s chairman, Mohamed Mohamud Aden, said.
IPI Director of Advocacy and Communications Steven M. Ellis welcomed Guled’s release, but he called on Somali authorities to return Xog Ogaal’s seized equipment and to ensure that the newspaper is allowed to resume operations without further harassment or intimidation.
He also called on authorities to immediately release Mohamed and his colleagues.
“Journalists working in Somalia should not be summarily detained in an effort to censor or silence independent reporting,” Ellis said. “We urge the Somali government to ensure that this does not happen and to uphold freedom of the press as enshrined in the Provisional Constitution of the Federal Republic of Somalia.”
The raid on Xog Ogaal, Somalia’s longest-running daily newspaper, and the arrest of Mohamed and his colleagues comes less than two months before twice-delayed presidential elections, set to be held on Nov. 30. Media representatives have expressed concern that the intimidation of journalists will increase in the run-up to the elections.
Somalia remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists to carry out their profession, with the media finding itself caught up in Somalia’s ongoing civil war and targeted by both the government and Islamist extremist groups.
According to IPI’s Death Watch, at least 56 journalists have been killed in relation to their work in the country in the past 10 years, and others are routinely threatened, intimidated, arrested and detained.
