Seven Somali journalists detained, radio station raided after interview with opposition group

Seven Somali journalists detained, radio station raided after interview with opposition group

Authorities in Somalia’s south-central Hirshabelle state must stop intimidating and censoring the press through arbitrary arrests and station closures because they disagree with reported content, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.

On Friday afternoon, January 21, 2022, heavily armed Hirshabelle police in the regional capital of Beledweyne raided local independent radio station Hiiraan Weyn while it was on air, according to the station’s editor-in-chief Yasiin Ali Ahmed, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, a joint statement by the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) and Somali Media Association (SOMA), and a statement by the Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ). During the raid, officers forced the station off the air and detained seven journalists for six hours, according to those sources.

The raid followed the broadcasting of an interview with the Hiiraan People’s Liberation Front in Beledweyne, a group opposed to the current leadership in Hirshabelle, less than two hours earlier, according to the statement and Yasiin, who added that police used their weapons to break down a door to get into the station.

With 25 murders in the past decade still unsolved, Somalia tops CPJ’s annual Global Impunity Index as the country with the world’s worst record for bringing killers of journalists to justice.

The seven detained journalists – Yasiin, Abdullahi Ali Abukar, Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed, Mohamed Osman Mohamud, Abdisamad Elmi Abdi, Abdimajid Dahir, and Mustaf Ali Addow – were taken to the Beledweyne Police Station, where they were held for six hours and told by police that they were “terrorists” who would be shot and killed for reporting on the Hiiraan People’s Liberation Front, according to the joint statement and Yasiin.

The seven Hiiraan Weyn journalists sit on a police vehicle after a raid on their radio station on January 21, 2022. (Credit: Somali Journalists Syndicate)

The journalists were eventually freed without charge after widespread calls for their release by citizens and journalists’ groups. None of the journalists were hurt and no equipment was seized during the raid, Yasiin told CPJ.

Later the same day, the journalists were taken to a house where Hirshabelle Deputy President Yusuf Ahmed Hagar, Hirshabelle Police Chief Colonel Hassan Dhi’isow, and Somali National Army Commander Colonel Mohamud Hassan Ibrahim were present, according to Yasiin and the SJS and SOMA statement.

FESOJ secretary-general Farah Omar Nur expressed concern in a news report about the continued clampdown on press freedom in Beledweyne, despite the training of police officers by media groups designed to support freedom of expression, according to the SJS and SOMA statement.

The British embassy in Mogadishu confirmed UK support for the Joint Police Program (JPP) in an emailed response to CPJ’s request for comment, saying that freedom of speech and a free press are crucial pieces of an inclusive political process.

Beledweyne Police Commissioner Mohamed Mohamud did not respond to several phone calls and messages sent by CPJ via WhatsApp. There was also no response to CPJ’s emails and phone messages to the offices of Yusuf and Mohamud.