Report says Conditions for Somali Journalists Deteriorating.
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Monday July 05, 2010 - 02:02:06 in English News by Super Admin
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By Tendai Maphosa
London
A new
Amnesty International report describes Somalia as one of the most dangerous
places in the world to be a journalist. The report says the threat to
journalists in the war-torn country is now the worst it has been since the Siad
Barre government was overthrown in 1991. Tendai Maphosa has the details in this
report for VOA from London.
At least nine journalists have been killed
since February 2007, more have been threatened, arrested and harassed and more
than 50 have been forced to flee Somalia, the Amnesty International report says.
Radio stations and other media outlets have been repeatedly closed.
The
attacks on journalists and the media, Amnesty concludes, indicate a systematic
attempt to curtail independent journalism.
Fighting between the
Ethiopian-backed Transitional Federal Government, called the TFG, and Islamic
insurgents is blamed for the ongoing insecurity.
The TFG and the
Ethiopians ousted the Islamic Courts from power at the end of 2006. Amnesty
spokesperson Michelle Kagari said all parties are to blame for the worsening
plight of journalists and ordinary Somalis.
"Violations against human
rights and violations against international humanitarian law are being committed
by all parties to the conflict so the Ethiopian troops linked to the TFG and
armed opposition groups," said Kagari.
The attacks, Amnesty says, mark a
disturbing reversal from 2005 and 2006, when the media began extending news
coverage beyond clan and warlord loyalties.
The Transitional Federal
Parliament passed a media law in December 2007. Though it provides an overly
broad and ill-defined framework that could ultimately subject all media to a
series of confusing constraints, it does offer some positive features.
"The new Media Act is a marginal improvement on the rule by decree, we
still have some concerns about that especially with regards to freedom of
expression and the independence of journalists for example, the new media act
says that the journalists must support the Somali state and culture, they need
to be licensed, no government has the right to start dictating based on its own
terms the context with which they should be doing their work; that is a
violation of international law," explained Amnesty spokesperson
Kagari.
The draft law also would require journalists to promote such
state interests as Islam, justice and democracy. It would also require the
establishment of regulatory Media Council with a majority of members elected
from private media outlets.
On Sunday, news reports said that Somalia
government soldiers raided three independent radio stations in the capital
Mogadishu. The soldiers reportedly forced the stations off the air, arrested a
journalist and seized equipment.
But a government official told VOA that
the government did not order the closure of the radio stations. Minister of
Information Ahmed Abdi Salam, a former co-founder and director of programming
for Horn Afrik, said some insurgents who were wearing government uniforms went
into different businesses, including some of these stations and took some
equipment. He said the stations were forced to close because some of their
equipment was stolen by looters.
Report says Conditions for Somali Journalists Deteriorating.
By Tendai Maphosa London