Attacks on the Press in 2010 - Committee to Protect Journalists

<strong>Attacks</strong> on the Press in 2010Commissioner for Refugees reported.Insurgent groups often considered professional journalists to begovernment supporters and, thus, enemy targets. The ongoing threat ledreporters to flee the capital, with some resettling in Hargeisa, Somalia’ssecond-largest city, and others leaving the country entirely to live in Kenya,Uganda, and Djibouti. “Most of the veteran professional journalists havefled,” said Mustafa Haji Abdinur, an Agence France-Presse reporter and2009 CPJ International Press Freedom Award recipient who, at age 29, wasa dean of the local press corps. “That’s one reason why I insist on stayinghere. Who will guide these young, inexperienced guys who are the onlyones remaining?”Highly sensitive to local radio coverage, hard-line militants were quickto seize journalists, censor news content, and close stations. Al-Shabaabordered Radio Markabley in the southwestern town of Bardera off the airand detained the director and a reporter in March after the station aired aprogram highlighting the suffering of Somali citizens following the Kenyangovernment’s closure of a border crossing, according to local reports.Al-Shabaab released Director Ahmed Omar Salihi the following day andreporter Mohamed Abdihakim three days later. Insurgents told Salihi thathis reporters would be killed if they continued to cover political issues,local journalists told CPJ.Several media houses in Mogadishu sought refuge by relocating to theslivers of government-controlled territory. “While the government willharass and detain you, the other side will kill you—that’s the difference,”Radio Shabelle correspondent Abdihakim Jimale told CPJ. Shabelle, oneof the leading independent radio stations, stealthily moved its equipment,piece by piece, from Mogadishu’s insurgent-controlled Bakara Market to agovernment-controlled area in June.By late year, virtually all media in insurgent-controlled areas were forcedto run propaganda or were shut down entirely. Al-Shabaab raided the studiosof major independent broadcasters such as HornAfrik, Somaliweyn,and GBC in Mogadishu, and Radio Mandeeq in the southern town ofBelet-Hawo, using the seized equipment for its own fledgling networkof five stations, called Radio Al-Andalus. “They tied us up in our archiveroom and started looting the equipment,” said Radio Mandeeq producerHassan Mohamed Mohamud. “Then they burned down our archive library,which I managed, and ruined years of Somali history.” During the holyRamadan holiday, Al-Shabaab simply took over the major Mogadishubroadcaster Radio IQK, which had focused on Islamic issues.Insurgents imposed severe censorship on all stations in rebel-heldterritories. Hizbul Islam and Al-Shabaab banned broadcasts of the World48