The deputy director of a radio station in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland was sentenced Saturday to six years in prison for airing an interview with the head of an insurgent group that is currently fighting the regional government.
Abdifatah Jama Mire of Horseed Media FM, a national Somali radio network, was found guilty of “interviewing and broadcasting views of people who are fighting the government,” which is a crime under Puntland’s anti-terrorism legislation, according to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ).
Mire was arrested in the port city of Bosasso along with six other Horseed Media employees on Friday evening after the premises were raided by Puntland security officers, the news outlet reported on its website. All were released except Mire, who was brought before a district court the next morning.
Mire was not provided with legal counsel, and neither the police nor the prosecutor presented evidence at the trial, reports said. Despite the fact that the prosecutor only requested a three year prison term, Bosaso District Judge Farah Hassan Ismail sentenced Mirensu to six years in jail and a fine equivalent to US$ 500.
The arrest came after Horseed radio aired an interview with insurgent leader Sheikh Mohamed Said Atom, who vowed to “continue our fight until we overthrow the Puntland administration,” The New York Times reported. The group has been held responsible for the deaths of five government soldiers who were killed during a gun battle in Galgala on Friday.
The Puntland government has recently been criticized for increasing efforts to control the media. One day after Mire’s arrest and sentencing, the Puntland Information Minister, Abdihakin Ahmed Guled, held a press conference in Bosasso in which he warned the media not to interview any of the insurgents or face “severe punishment,” NUSOJ reported.
“We are outraged at the prison sentence handed to Abdifatah Jama Mire simply because he dared to practice independent journalism,” said IPI Press Freedom Manager Anthony Mills. “We find it deeply worrying that the Puntland authorities have chosen to use their anti-terrorism laws as a way to stifle the media. The Bosasso District Court of Appeals should recall that press freedom is enshrined in the Puntland constitution, and overturn this unacceptable conviction and sentence.”
This latest incident comes just days after journalist Nuh Muse Birjeb, who works for Voice of America’s Somali service and Universal TV, was suspended. On 10 August, Birjeb received a letter from the Puntland Ministry of Information, Telecommunication and Culture ordering him to stop working; the letter gave no reason for the suspension. According to NUSOJ, Somali journalists believe that the suspension came from the top level of government, and have called it the latest in a string of intimidating and repressive incidents.
