Arrested journalists released

Two journalists arrested by the Transitional National Government (TNG) in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, have been released, a local journalist told IRIN on Thursday. The two radio journalists, Abdirahman Muhammad Hudeyfi and Husayn Muhammad Ghedi, work for the Mogadishu-based Benadir radio. The Paris-based media watchdog, Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), had earlier taken up their case. In a statement, RSF reported that the two journalists were arrested on 30 June and taken to a detention centre. It quoted the director of Benadir radio, Ali Dhagaweyn, as saying they had been arrested "for exercising their right to inform the public". However, TNG Information Minister Abdirahman Ibbi told IRIN he had been informed that the arrests had nothing to do with the journalists' work. "As I understand it, they were arrested for stealing a mobile phone," he said. The deputy governor of Mogadishu, Ibrahim Umar Shaaweye, confirmed to IRIN that he had lent the journalists his mobile phone so that they could relay information to their radio station. "But instead of returning it, they took off with it," he said. "That is why they were arrested." They were released on Wednesday "after the intervention of elders".