UNPOS
Friday, May 25, 2012
The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Somalia, Dr. Augustine P. Mahiga, is dismayed to learn of the brutal murder of a Somali journalist today in Mogadishu.
Shabelle Radio broadcaster Ahmed Addow Anshuur was gunned down and killed in Mogadishu on Thursday. He was the sixth journalist to be assassinated in Somalia this year. “It is well known that Somali journalists have the most difficult working conditions in the world. But that does not make it any easier to accept when one is brutally killed. Ahmed Addow Anshuur was targeted in cold blood for carrying out his doing his job as a professional journalist, which is an essential element of a free and functioning society,” said Dr. Mahiga. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Somalia has been the second deadliest country for the media in 2012, following Syria.
“It is all the more poignant coming in wake of the Constitutional Conference on Freedom of Expression in which Somali leaders expressed their uncompromising support to press freedom,” added Dr. Mahiga. Last week, the Ministry for Constitutional Affairs and Reconciliation organized a two-day consultative conference on Freedom of Expression, Media Law and Transitional Justice in Mogadishu which made recommendations for the draft interim Constitution. The discussions centered on the challenges to freedom of expression faced by civil society leaders and journalists and raised the need to enhance the judicial system to bring perpetrators before a court of law. The Somali Prime Minister reiterated the government's commitment to ending the cycle of impunity against journalists.
SRSG Mahiga offers his heartfelt condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Mr. Anshuur and calls on the Somali authorities to investigate his death and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.
“This cycle of violence must stop,” the SRSG stated.