Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists

attacks on the press in 2009africa: ugandaan Australian, were freed in November after 15 months in captivity. News reportssaid relatives had paid a ransom. In an interview with the Canadian broadcasterCTV, Lindhout said the captors had beaten and tortured her. “It was extremelyoppressive. I was kept by myself at all times. I had no one to speak to. I was normallykept in a room with a light, no window. I had nothing to write on or with.There was very little food,” she told CTV.One journalist was reported kidnapped in 2009: Universal TV Director IbrahimMohamed was seized along the road from Afgoye to Mogadishu, Universalnewscaster Ahmed Tooya said. Mohamed was freed five days later unharmed,Tooya said, and the reason for the kidnapping was not established.Kidnappings and deadly violence proved powerful deterrents to internationaljournalists. “There are now almost no foreign correspondents visiting Somalia,”Paul Salopek, a veteran correspondent, told CPJ. “The net result is one of theworst humanitarian crises in the world is more invisible than ever.” Most internationalmedia organizations did not permanently assign correspondents to Mogadishu,relying instead on reports from local Somali journalists—who themselveswere diminishing in numbers.CPJ research shows at least 30 journalists have fled Somalia in recent yearsafter facing work-released violence or persecution. Somali journalists and organizations,however, said the number may be much higher. Abdukadir Ahmed, a formerRadio Shabelle reporter who started a union of exiled Somali journalists, said morethan 60 Somali journalists had moved to nearby Kenya and Uganda. Politicians,too, fled in high numbers, leaving barely enough to field a quorum in parliament.In comparison to the rest of the country, the semi-autonomous republic ofPuntland remained relatively stable under the leadership of President AbdirahmanMohamed who said in a January press conference that he would “upholdfreedom of the press as a cornerstone of good governance.” Despite those comments,online journalist Jama Ayanle was imprisoned in March on the ordersof the deputy police commissioner, the journalist told CPJ. A judge in the porttown of Bossasso sentenced Ayanle, a reporter for the news Web sites Laasqorayand Dayniile to a two-year sentence for “insulting Puntland leaders.” No detailssupporting the charge were disclosed; Ayanle was freed on a presidential pardonafter serving 20 days.The government of the breakaway northern republic of Somaliland crackeddown on the independent press throughout the year. As the ruling party preparedfor elections—which were repeatedly postponed—critical reporting was deemed acriminal offense by a politicized judiciary, local journalists told CPJ. Reporters workingfor the Baadiyenews and Berberanews Web sites were briefly detained by police.The government’s main target, however, was the Dutch-based Radio Horyaal.In July, Managing Director Mohamed Osman and News Editor Ahmed Dhuhulwere arrested and accused of inciting violence for reporting on a conference betweenthe president and clan elders regarding a land dispute. The two were eventuallyreleased on bail after 15 days at Somaliland’s Criminal Investigation Departmentin Hargeisa. Police arrested Osman again in September outside parliamentand detained him for five days without charge, Horyaal reporter Abdirizan Dubadtold CPJ. Police in the central town of Burao also arrested Radio Horyaal reporterFowsi Suleiman and detained him for 22 days without charge.UGANDAt o p developments»»Reporters attacked, harassed duringKampala unrest.»»Criminal cases pile up as high courtconsiders constitutional challenge.key statistic2 2Criminal cases pendingagainst Andrew Mwenda,a top political editor.Violent protests broke out in kampala in september whensecurity forces blocked leaders of the traditional kingdom of the Baganda, Uganda’slargest ethnic group, from visiting Kayunga district for a planned rally, accordingto local news reports. More than 25 people were killed and 846 peoplearrested in two days of clashes that underscored political tensions between thegovernment and the kingdom, according to official figures reported in the press.The Human Rights Network for Journalists, a local press freedom organization,said it had documented more than 20 cases in which security forces andrioters attacked or harassed reporters, particularly photojournalists. In one case,plainclothes security agents whisked away Nation TV Uganda journalist TonyMuwangala and forced him at gunpoint to delete footage taken during the riots,Muwangala told CPJ. The same day, troops briefly detained at gunpoint a team ofMonitor journalists, according to the newspaper.During the violence, citizen journalists in Kampala and beyond providedreal-time coverage of the unfolding clashes, according to Global Voices bloggerRebekah Heacock, who specializesin access-to-information issuesin East Africa. “Within 24 hoursof the first violence, volunteers inKampala launched Uganda Witness,a crisis reporting site,” whichpublished 45 separate SMS textmessagereports of violence infour days, Heacock wrote on theCPJ Blog. Using Twitter, KampalaWeb developer SolomonKing and journalist TumwijukeMutambuka posted information4 24 3