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Paris, July 18, 2009 –
Reporters Without Borders is outraged by the arrest of two journalists
and the closure of a TV station in Somaliland and the beatings which
several journalists received from police in the northeastern
semi-autonomous region of Puntland.
“While the international community’s attention is focused on the
abduction of two French government advisers who were posing a
journalists in Mogadishu, the real journalists continue to be arrested
and attacked with complete impunity,” Reporters Without Borders said.
“The international community should help Somali journalists, who are
exposed to enormous risks.”
Ahmed Saleban Dhuhul and Sayid Osman Mire, both members of the
Somaliland Journalists Associations (SOLJA), were arrested without a
warrant on 13 July when police raided Horyaal Radio, a privately-owned
station based in the Somaliland capital of Hargeysa.
Accused by Somaliland President Dahir Riyale of stirring up a tribal
dispute that led to the death of four people, they are still being held
at the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department in Hargeysa.
A local television station, Horn Cable TV (HCTV), has been closed on the
orders of the Somaliland attorney general for broadcasting a report
about the same dispute.
In Puntland, several journalists, including Aweys Sheikh Nur of Horseed
Media Radio, were attacked and beaten by police while attending the
trial of a number of Somali pirates in the port city of Bosaso.
The journalists were attacked after some of them took photos of the
prosecutor although they complied with a request to delete the photos.
The judge and other court officials did not intervene while the police
beat them. When the journalists complained, one police officer said: “We
do not like what you report; you journalists are against the
government.”
Africa’s deadliest country for the news media, Somalia was ranked 153rd
out of 173 countries in the 2008 Reporters Without Borders press freedom
index. Kidnappings of journalists and humanitarian aid workers are now
common in Somalia and six journalists have been killed since the start
of the year.
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