H.E. Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf
Office of the President
Garowe
Puntland State of Somalia
Vienna, 24 May 2002
Your Excellency,
The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists, is extremely concerned at the decision to withdraw the licence of a broadcasting company in Puntland, a self-declared, semi-autonomous region of Somalia.
On the basis of information provided to IPI, on 22 May, the authorities withdrew the licence of the Somali Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), which has its headquarters in the commercial capital of the region, Bosaso. As a result radio and television transmissions were affected.
Speaking to the United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), SBC manager, Ali Abdi Aware said, “At around 10 a.m (local time)… we received an official letter informing us that our licence had been withdrawn and we should, therefore, shut the station down.”
According to Aware, the authorities have accused the SBC of breaking the region’s press laws. However, it would appear that the broadcasting company may have been targeted for its bias against Your Excellency and for its support of the interim government in Mogadishu, Somalia, and the previous leader of Puntland, Jama Ali Jama.
Reacting to the accusations Aware told IRIN, “We have been impartial to a fault in our reporting. We have not supported Jama Ali or Abdullahi Yusuf,” he said. “In fact, we challenged the authorities to come up with a single programme that could be construed as biased.”
With regard to the withdrawal of the licence, IPI calls on the authorities to immediately rescind its decision. IPI notes that SBC sub-stations in Garowe, the regional capital, continue to broadcast and would encourage the authorities to restore this service to the entire region. Freedom of the media is fundamental to any democratic regime and IPI would invite the authorities to accept that criticism and political dissent are traditional elements of any society.
In seeking to prevent criticism, the authorities are hindering the free flow of information and stifling discussion and debate within the Puntland region. Furthermore, the decision is in breach of Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights which states that, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas”.
Concerning the procedure used to withdraw the licence, IPI is concerned that there appears to be no proper appeals procedure and there are real fears that the authorities have made an arbitrary decision without providing the necessary evidence to prove its case. IPI therefore calls on the authorities to make full disclosure of the reasons behind the decision to withdraw the license.
We very much look forward to hearing from you in the near future.
Yours sincerely,
Johann P. Fritz
Director
