Puntland bans BBC correspondents from reporting

The authorities in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland have issued orders banning two local correspondents from reporting to the BBC's Somali service, a senior official in the region's commercial capital, Bosaso, told IRIN on Monday.

Isma'il Warsame, chief of cabinet of the region's leader, Abdullahi Yusuf, said the decision to ban the two reporters, Ahmad Muhammad Kismayo and Muhammad Khalif Gir, was reached by the region's Emergency Committee on 16 August, "but did not take effect until Saturday [17 August]".

"These two gentlemen have been banned, because they have not been and are not objective in their reporting of events in the region", said Isma'il. He said the BBC had been informed of the decision to ban them. "We urge the BBC to bring in people who are objective and not engaged in political activity."

Other sources in Bosaso told IRIN that the BBC reporters had been targeted for their perceived bias against Abdullahi Yusuf, and "supposed sympathy for Jama Ali Jama [the former, elected Puntland leader and now rival for the presidency of the region]".

Ahmad Kismayo told IRIN that he did not know why he and his colleague had been banned, but denied any partiality. "We have been impartial to a fault in our reporting. We have supported neither Jama Ali nor Abdullahi Yusuf," he said. "In fact, I challenge the authorities to come up with a single piece that could be remotely construed as biased."

A local journalist in Garowe, the region's capital, who requested anonymity, told IRIN on Monday that the banning was another attack on the free press. "This is nothing more than an attempt to intimidate and harass journalists in Puntland."

The authorities in May this year closed down the privately-owned Somali Broadcasting Corporation radio and television, which was based in Bosaso.