The director of Somalia's Universal TV, Ibrahim Mohamed Ali, was abducted Tuesday as he was returning from Afgoye, 30 km north of Mogadishu, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Universal TV is a privately-owned Somali television station based in London.
“This kidnapping comes just a few days after a journalist was killed while covering the fighting between government forces and Islamist militias in the centre of Mogadishu and highlights the scale of the dangers to which media workers are exposed in Somalia,” RSF said. “We are very concerned about Ali and we hope he is freed without delay.”
The Djibouti-based independent Somali news agency (SOMINA) reported that that Ali, also known as “Jeckey,” was abducted by four masked gunmen who stopped his car as he was returning to Mogadishu from Afgoye Tuesday afternoon. The gunmen said they had been looking for Ali and did not abduct the technician, Abdirisak Mohamud Jimale, who was accompanying him.
Canadian reporter Amanda Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan were kidnapped in similar circumstances on August 23, 2008. Their Somali fixer and driver were also abducted but were freed on January 15. Lindhout and Brennan are still being held hostage in Mogadishu.
Kidnappings of journalists and humanitarian aid workers have become quite common in Somalia, which is the deadliest country in Africa for the news media and is ranked 153rd out of 173 countries in the 2008 RSF press freedom index.
