The Somali Islamist insurgent group Hizbul Islam has warned Somali media against covering celebrations of the country’s 50th anniversary today, according to news reports. Hizbul Islam chief Mo’allin Hashi Farah told local radio stations that if they covered today’s celebrations they would “face bad consequences,”  a report from Sapa-AFP said. “We call on the Muslim […]

Press freedom conditions across Somalia took another blow last week, with a spate of reported attacks against journalists both in southern Somalia and in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, according to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) and other local news sources. On Friday, 21 May, Islamist Al-Shabab militants raided the premises of Radio […]

Days after Islamist insurgent group Hizbul Islam banned radio stations in Mogadishu from playing music of any description, journalists in the embattled Somali capital found themselves facing an ultimatum from the government after it announced that all radio stations complying with the ban would face closure. According to the National Union of Somali Journalists, (NUSOJ), […]

A Somali radio journalist kidnapped in Mogadishu on 27 March was freed on Thursday. Radio journalist Abdul Karim Mohamed Hersi was freed last night by the Islamist insurgent group Al Shabab, according to National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) Coordinator Mohamed Ibrahim. Hersi, a reporter with Mogadishu-based Radio Holy Koran, had been taken from the […]