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New York,
December 19, 2008--The only radio station in an Islamist-controlled town
in southern Somalia was shuttered by militants in a raid last week,
according to the station's director.
About 10 armed Al Shabab militiamen, a hardline Islamist insurgent group
controlling the coastal town of Kismayo since August, forced the local
station of independent broadcasting network HornAfrik off the air on
December 13, director Ahmed Mohamed Aden told CPJ. The militia handed
Aden an order signed by Sheikh Hassan Yaqub Ali, the information
secretary of the Islamic administration in Kismayo, accusing the station
of airing music and "anti-Islamist" information, he said.
"The forced closure of HornAfrik in Kismayo indicates that there are no
parts of Somalia where press freedom is respected," said CPJ Africa
Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. "We call on the information secretary of
the Islamic administration to reverse his decision and allow Kismayo's
only radio station, HornAfrik, back on the air. The free-flow of news is
in the country's best interest."
The raid took place in the evening of December 13, shortly after the
station aired a news item reporting civilian casualties in fighting
between Al Shabab fighters and local militia in the southwestern town of
Dobley, near the Kenyan border, according to Aden. Islamist
administration spokesman Ali officially reported a total of seven
military casualties on both sides, but no civilian deaths, according to
local journalists.
The raid occurred a day after HornAfrik celebrated its 12th anniversary
as Somalia's first ever independent broadcaster, according to news
reports. Warlords, Islamists, and the Somali Transitional Federal
Government have variously attacked and harassed the station over its
coverage, according to CPJ research. HornAfrik's co-founder Ali
Sharmarke was among seven journalists murdered in the line of duty in
2007.
Since capturing Kismayo on August 23, the Al Shabab administration has
imposed strict restrictions on press freedom, including pre-broadcast
censorship, according to local journalists. The city remains one of the
most dangerous for journalists in Somalia. This year alone, two Kismayo-based
journalists, Nasteh Dahir Farah and Hassan Kafi Hared, were murdered
with total impunity.
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