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Adan H Iman
According to articles in the Somaliland media in the past few days, Parliament is currently debating a bill that will regulate the press and other media. It can be recalled that the Parliament had attempted on a number of occasions in the past to pass a bill regulating the press without any success.
Writers of the articles expressed profound concern that parliament may pass a bill that curtails freedom of the press. During both the Egal Administration and the present Rayale Administration, the nonexistence of press laws in Somaliland has been the main source of tension between the media and the government. This tension and confusion is highlighted by an incident in May of this year when Haatuf correspondent, Mohamed Omar Khayre, was reportedly jailed, and later given suspended jail time, after he wrote an article which quoted the chairman of the KULMIYE party in Borama as saying that "some UDUB party officials were actually involved in anti-Somaliland clandestine efforts". The Chairman of KULMIYE party was also reportedly arrested.
It is not clear whether Awdal regional officials or the central government or both were involved in this incident. But whoever was behind this had misused their authority to undertake an action that was unconstitutional and illegal.
Somaliland is a democratic society. In democratic societies, nobody is supposed to be arrested because of what they write or say. Freedom of speech and press are guaranteed by the constitution. Somaliland can’t on the one hand claim to be democratic and on the other hand crack down on journalists.
It is imperative that as soon as is reasonably possible Parliament enacts and the President signs the right press bill into law. Those bills must be modeled after similar laws in free societies. Enacting laws that places limitation on the press and other media will create more problems than it will solve.
The law must mandate that no journalist will ever go to jail for expressing his/her views in writing no matter how offensive or unacceptable that opinion is to some people. Only people who commit crimes are supposed to go to jail. Expressing opinion in whatever form should not be criminalized. When a journalist is proven to have unfairly damaged the reputation of an individual, the appropriate remedy is to assess damages not jail time.
The laws must make clear distinction between on the one hand public officials and on the other hand private citizens. Public officials by virtue of the fact they serve the citizens, and are compensated by them, have no privacy rights. They are to be subjected to full scrutiny by the media. It comes with the territory. The citizens of Somaliland should have the right to know through the media how their public officials are performing. Any public official who does not welcome scrutiny has the option of just leaving public service and looking for another line of work. It is that simple. In that case he/she will not be bothered.
The bill to be enacted must make it very difficult, nearly impossible, for journalists to be prosecuted based on what they write about public officials. People who live in Great Britain or the United States know that newspapers print all kinds of things about public officials without any fear of retribution. However, the new bill must it easier for private citizens to go after journalists if they feel they have been slandered.
The role of the media in a society should not be underestimated. Thomas Jefferson once wrote that if were it left for him to choose between a government without newspapers or newspapers without government, he would not hesitate to choose the latter. In the opinion of Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States of America, and one of the best political minds ever, the media is more important than the government itself.
This is only to emphasize that the role of media is so important that we can’t afford to curb their freedom. We know the fate of societies that placed restriction on the media; they were all doomed. Since both the legislature and the Executive branches do not want Somaliland to fail but to prosper, they must establish laws that do not tamper with the media but leave it alone. Putting restrictions on the media will not only damage the reputation of Somaliland, it will wipe out gains made by the nation’s residents socially and politically. Let freedom of the press ring across the country.
On their side, it is incumbent upon Somaliland journalists to use the freedoms accorded to them by the constitution and by the laws of the country in a responsible manner. Editors must double check and verify stories written by staff writers by contacting the sources directly so as ensure that published stories are true and accurate. Journalists must police themselves (peer review), and recognize those whose work enhances the reputation of the profession and publicly reprimand those who abuse the freedom of the press. This will create trust of the press by Somalilanders.
Adan H Iman, Management Analyst for the City of Los Angeles, is also member of Somaliland Policy & Reconstruction Institute (SOPRI), a non-partisan non-profit organization based in Los Angeles. Email: adan_h_iman1000@hotmail.com
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