Somalia

The International Press Institute (IPI) Friday called on the Somali government to investigate the death of award-winning radio journalist Yusuf Ahmed Abukar, who was killed by a car bomb on Saturday. The 27-year-old reporter was driving through Mogadishu when a bomb planted underneath the front seat of his car exploded at 7:40 a.m., according to local reports. Abukar worked for Mustaqbal radio...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed its serious concern about the proposed media law that is currently being drafting in Somalia, stating that in its present form it would restrict the work of journalists and undermine media freedom and freedom of expression. In a Initiates file downloadletter sent to the Prime Minister of Somalia, Abdweli Sheikh Ahmed, the IFJ has...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has joined its affiliate, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), to call on Somali authorities to carry out a thorough investigation into the killing of the radio journalist, Yusuf Ahmed Abukar Keynan, who was murdered in Mogadishu on Saturday morning, 21 June. According to the NUSOJ, an explosive device ripped through Keynan’s car at...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has vigorously condemned the detention of two journalists in Somaliland. According to IFJ affiliate, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), Yusuf Abdi Gabobe, owner and chairman of Haatuf Media Network, and Ahmed Ali Igeh, editor-in-chief of Haatuf newspaper, were arrested by Somaliland police on 10 May inside Hargeisa regional court...

Police in the semi-autonomous republic of Somaliland on April 3 raided the Hargeisa offices of the independent Somali-language paper Haatuf and its sister English-language weekly, Somaliland Times, and suspended them indefinitely, according to local journalists and news reports. The police cited a court order that said the papers should be shut down for publishing false news and insulting...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on thursday backed a call by its affiliate in Somalia, the National Union of Somali Journalists, to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia Hailemariam Desalegn to free Somali journalist, Mohamed Aweys Mudey, found guilty under Ethiopia’s notoriously harsh anti-terror laws and sentenced to 27 years in jail. The call was made on the occasion of a summit of...

The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned by reports that two radio directors in the capital, Mogadishu, were arrested and held without charge for two days by Somalia's National Security Agency. Somalia authorities detained two radio directors for two days and threatened to kill them if they continued to air news critical of the government upon their release, local journalists told...

Authorities from the semi-autonomous republic of Somaliland on Monday indefinitely banned the UK-based private broadcaster Universal TV in connection with its critical coverage of the president, local journalists told CPJ. The station has complied with the directive and is not broadcasting in Somaliland, according to news reports. Local journalists told CPJ the ban stemmed from a political satire...

Reporters Without Borders has expressed outrage at the Islamist militia Al-Shabaab’s announcement yesterday that it is banning the Internet in the areas of Somalia that it controls. “By preventing the public from using the Internet in the areas it controls, Al-Shabaab is launching an unprecedented offensive against freedom of information,” Reporters Without Borders said. “This Islamist...

Gunmen from pro- and anti-government militias raided and shuttered two radio stations in Somalia in separate attacks on Wednesday, according to New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). An armed group with links to the hardline insurgency Al-Shabaab stormed the private Voice of Hiran on Wednesday morning in the central town of Beledweyne, ordering all staff to...