Media watchdog alarmed at threats against journalists

The media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, expressed concern on Monday over alleged threats by gunmen in Somalia against local journalists and appealed to the country's interim government to help stop the intimidation.

"It is getting more and more difficult for Somali journalists to work," the press freedom organisation said in a statement.

"Pushed around by warlords, Islamic courts and businessmen, they chose to defend themselves by setting up an exemplary, democratically-run organisation, and this is now being targeted," it added.

Threats, it noted, had been directed against the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) both before and after its annual general assembly in Mogadishu on 29 to 31 August.

"We appeal to the Transitional Federal Government and its international partners to use their influence to get these threats stopped as soon as possible," the statement said.

"This episode highlights the urgent need to re-establish the rule of law in Mogadishu, in order to protect the small pockets of democracy that Somalis have managed to create for themselves amid the anarchy," it added.

Anonymous death threats were received several times by NUSOJ leaders between 22 and 28 August, according to Reporters Without Borders. It said NUSOJ secretary-general Omar Faruk Osman and council chairman Mohamed Barre Haji had received anonymous calls on the organisation's office telephones and their mobile phones threatening that they would be killed "immediately" or "in 48 hours".

The statement said during the 10 days prior to the general assembly, a pickup vehicle with a dozen heavily armed men regularly passed in front of the NUSOJ office in the Waberi district.

On 2 September, four hooded militiamen with AK-47 assault rifles in a saloon car forced their way into the home of one of the members of the NUSOJ executive committee, Ali Moallim Isak, who was away at the time. The militiamen finally left after waiting for six hours, without giving an explanation for their presence.

"We don't know who these militiamen are or what they want," Osman told Reporters Without Borders. "The only law that is respected in this country is the law of the gun. As a result, we have stepped up our protective measures. We will not let these acts of intimidation prevent us from working."

Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders said the local correspondent of the Swedish-based news website somaliweyn.com, Mohamed "Siidi" Abdulle Hassan, was briefly kidnapped on Monday by the militia of the self-proclaimed governor of the central region of Hiiraan, Yusuf Ali, for allegedly failing to cover a press conference held in Mogadishu.

Ali put a pistol to the correspondent's head and ordered him to tell his editor that he would be killed if a report was not published, Reporters Without Borders said. Siidi was released after NUSOJ interceded with Ali, who nevertheless confiscated Siidi's equipment and material.