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AFEX demands release of detained Somali journalists
The African Freedom of Expression Exchange (AFEX), a network of free expression organisations on the continent has raised concerns over ongoing massive crackdown on media freedoms and freedom of expression in Somalia.
It recalled that on August 15, 2014, heavily armed security forces raided and shut down Radio Shabelle and SkyFM, both owned by Shabelle Media Network and arrested 19 journalists and media workers.
A statement signed by the AFEX Co-ordinator, Mr Venancious Tuor and issued in Accra, identified those arrested to include the Chairman of Shabelle Media Network, Abdimalik Yusuf Mohamud, and the Director of Sky FM, Mohamud Mohamed Dahir.
It said those media workers had been detained in the underground prison of the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), a place where suspected terrorists were being kept.
The statement noted that in June this year, the Minister of Information submitted a draft media law to the Somali Council of Ministers which, if endorsed and eventually passed into law by Parliament would compel journalists to disclose their sources of information.
“The Bill was subsequently withdrawn to allow for inputs from media stakeholders following intense pressure from media groups,” the statement said, recalling that until 2012, Somalia had been without a functioning state for over two decades.
It noted that those periods witnessed arbitrary arrests and detention of journalists, frequent attacks on the media and other forms of serious human rights violations.
“With the advent of a democratically elected government, AFEX expects the government of Somalia to guarantee freedom of expression as a fundamental prerequisite for democratic development and consolidation. This is why the ongoing violations are extremely worrying.
“AFEX, therefore, calls for the immediate release of the detained journalists and the reopening of Shabelle Radio and Sky FM. Furthermore, AFEX calls for an immediate halt to the arbitrary arrests, torture and harassment of journalists and other free expression activists in Somalia”.
