Authorities in Somalia’s breakaway region of Puntland freed a broadcast corporation chief held on charges that his media outlets incited political upheaval, he told AFP Saturday.Mowlid Haji Abdi was released late Friday after being detained for hours following a police raid on the premises of Somalia Broadcasting Corporation, which operates radio and television stations.
"I got my freedom back. The security officials told me they were unhappy with a news item about clashes that took place in Bossaso on Thursday evening," Abdi said. "I don’t think that we broadcast false stories," he added. "This was not justice...they only violated the freedom of speech."
Press rights watchdogs pressed Puntland to release him, charging that his detention was designed to harass the media. Somalia, a war-riven Horn of Africa nation, has been ranked the world’s second-deadliest country for journalists by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
