Monday, June 08, 2009
 Family, friends attend funeral for late Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe, the director of Shabelle Media Network Photo by Shabelle Media |
"This is very serious," Amnesty's Africa researcher, Benedicte Goderiaux told Adnkronos International (AKI). "This is not the first time that a journalist has been killed in Somalia.
"Some of the killings are not random, but are targeted killings."
Somali radio reporter, Hasan Mohamed Osman, said that Hirabe was reportedly shot several times while he was walking near a market in Bakara. Another reporter was injured in the attack.
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A second rights group, Reporters Without Borders, echoed Amnesty's call and demanded an immediate investigation to determine the identity of the killers so they may be punished.Goderiaux said journalists and civil rights activists were being killed with impunity in Somalia.
"Not a single person has been brought to account," she said. "This is a way of silencing the reporting of human rights abuses in Somalia. It is an extremely dangerous place."
Goderiaux is due to attend the international conference on Somalia due to take place in the Italian capital, Rome, on Tuesday and Wednesday.
She said it was an important opportunity to discuss issues not only related to security but the urgent need to protect civilians.
Goderiaux welcomed an appeal by the Italian media group, AKI-Adnkronos International to protect media freedom and journalists' rights in Somalia.
AKI on Monday appealed to all the factions fighting in Somalia to respect the lives and activities of journalists in the country. In a statement the company said the homicide rate of journalists was equivalent to a shocking one a month.
Journalists working for Radio Shabelle have come under attack since the independent station began broadcasting in 2003.
Hirabe, 48, is said to be its third journalist to be killed this year. Fourteen journalists were killed in Somalia in 2007.
Source: AKI, June 07, 2009