Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Paris-based RSF said in a statement that gunmen on Monday threatened to kill National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) official Ali Moallim Isak "if he did not cease his activities."
"Mogadishu's chronic violent crime makes journalists an easy target. The NUSOJ has continued to work to defend the press, despite a wave of killings in which seven journalist have died since the start of this year," it added.
"The government should adopt urgent protective measures to show that it wants to retain what is currently one of the country's best assets," the group added.
RSF also urged Nairobi to allow at least 10 journalists, fleeing insecurity in Mogadishu and currently blocked at the border with Kenya to cross over safely.
The reporters are stuck at the border because it is closed as Kenya has visa restrictions on Somali nationals, according to the NUSOJ.
In August, gunmen killed three Somali journalists, two of them in Mogadishu, bringing the number of reporters killed this year to seven.
Since Ethiopian and Somali troops ousted an Islamist militia that briefly controlled large parts of the country early this year, Mogadishu has seen near-daily guerrilla-style attacks against government targets.
Violent crime targeting civilians has also increased in the city, officials say.
Somali forces backed by Ethiopians troops and African Union peacekeepers have failed to quell the insurgency that has claimed hundreds of lives and choked off the delivery of aid to displaced civilians in and around the capital.
Source: AFP, Sept 05, 2007