Journalists Union Appeals to New Prime Minister to Improve Media Freedom

National Union of Somali Journalists (Mogadishu)

25 June 2011

press release

The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has expressed its concerns over the poor record of the Transitional Federation Government towards media freedom in Somalia.

In the past six months, the TFG Ministry of Information, Telecommunication and Posts with the support of the security forces has been secretly and explicitly waging campaign against the independent media and the journalists’ movement by intimidating and using all possible means to jeopardise the independence of the journalists, media outlets and the national union.

NUSOJ urges the newly appointed Prime Minister of Somalia, Mr. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, to undertake reforms that allow for greater media freedom.

The Ministry of Information, using the meagre resources of the TFG had taken repressive actions that represent a clear danger to journalists and their ability to cover important news events.

“In the past few months, the function of this Ministry has been to undermine the independent journalism, try to destabilise the journalists union by blatantly violating the freedom of association and countering the Islamists propaganda without servicing the public and promotion professionally independent media,” said Omar Faruk Osman, NUSOJ Secretary General.

NUSOJ has documented a series of disturbing TFG acts of censorship, threats of criminal prosecutions of journalists, intimidation, and physical threats against the journalists by the officials of the Ministry of Information as well as officials of the security authorities of the TFG. The union has also documented numerous cases of journalists who had their equipment confiscated by police or armed forces, while others have had shots fired at them.

Radio Mogadishu, which is controlled by TFG, has become hostile State media that has consistently and persistently been used by individuals to settle their personal scores and advance vendetta through unpalatable remarks. “Fanning hatred by Radio Mogadishu must stop immediately in the national interest. Journalists at Radio Mogadishu must refuse to be purveyors of the views of a few politicians”.

“TFG is responsible for upholding freedom of the media and must ensure that basic rights and freedoms of journalists are protected” added Omar.

“The new prime minister has the opportunity to open new page by taking swift action to ensure the ability of journalists to carry out their work without official interference”.

Every year, the Ministry of Information is accustomed to collecting from the media houses an amount ranging between $800 up to $1500 as registration fees while there is no law in the country clearly obliging the media to pay this amount. The officials at the Ministry threatened that any media house that does not make the payment would face severe punishment.

NUSOJ urges the new government of Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali to put an end to this illegal and forceful payment of the struggling media houses and instead, expedite the revision and adoption of the media laws that will offer more freedom to the media.

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