MOGADISHU , December 27, 2007 – Somali authorities in the capital Mogadishu yesterday ordered an independent radio station off air, the station’s director said, the latest in a series of restrictions imposed on the media.

The director of Radio Somaliweyn told reporters that the mayor or Mogadishu had ordered his station to stop broadcasting after it "violated media rules."

"The mayor himself contacted the radio station early this morning and ordered us to stop broadcasting and we did," Abdirahman Hassan Hudeyfi said.

"There was a programme in which we hosted one of the former Islamic courts officials and he was talking about the difference between the Islamic courts era and today," producer Abdulkadir Dulyare told AFP.

The Islamic Courts Union were a fundamentalist militia which briefly took control of large parts of the Horn of Africa country last year before being ousted by Ethiopian troops who came to the rescue of the embattled government.

The organization has officially disbanded but its fighters are still involved in a deadly insurgency against the government forces and its Ethiopian allies, while its leadership has formed a broad opposition alliance in exile.

Authorities in Mogadishu were not immediately available to comment.

"The closure is the latest in a series of coercive measures for which there has been no legal authority," Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.

The Somali authorities have closed down several independent radio stations in recent months, accusing them of supporting the Islamist opposition.

Source: AFP

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