Saturday April 16, 2022
Authorities in the breakaway region of Somaliland should
unconditionally release without charge 13 journalists detained since April 13
and should not pursue any charges against two others who were detained and
later released, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, April 13, security personnel
— including police and intelligence officers — arrested a group of at least
nine journalists, working for seven local private media outlets and two
international outlets, who were covering a fight between inmates and guards at
a prison in the region’s capital, Hargeisa, according to multiple media reports
and statements by press rights groups. Two of the detained journalists were
released after a few hours in custody, according to the press rights groups and
a statement by the Human Rights Center, an advocacy group.
Later that day, security personnel raided the Horn Cable TV
offices, which was one of the stations that aired breaking news dispatches from
the scene of the prison fight, and arrested another six journalists, according
to statements made at a news conference by Sakaria Muhumed Ahmed, the
chairperson of the Somaliland Journalists Association, a local media industry body;
a joint statement by the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) and the Somali
Media Association, Mogadishu-based press rights organizations; and Abdikarim
Saed Salah, a Horn Cable TV journalist who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.
Abdikarim said that the men who raided the station were police officers.
The detained journalists’ colleagues said that none of them
had been produced in court. CPJ was unable to independently verify the
whereabouts of the 13 journalists who remain behind bars or what allegations police
have leveled against them.
“These sweeping arrests expose the intolerance for
independent reporting that has made Somaliland a hostile environment for
members of the press,” said CPJ’s sub-Saharan African representative Muthoki
Mumo. “Authorities must release all journalists detained for their work, allow
them to go back to their jobs without interference, and ensure that security
personnel no longer harass or detain journalists for doing their jobs.”
At a news conference, shared online by state media, Justice
Minister Saleban Warsame Guled accused journalists of rushing to the scene to
“report unconfirmed news.” At that same press conference, Ahmed Awale Yusuf,
the head of Somaliland’s Custodial Corps, which is in charge of guarding the
prison, vowed to file a case against “those who exaggerated the incident” for
“damaging the moral of the soldiers and lying.”
According to media reports, including by some the
journalists’ employers; the statements; and the colleagues who spoke to CPJ,
the nine journalists detained near the prison were:
- Naima Abdi Ahmed, founder of Carro Edeg Media
-
- Hassan Galaydh, a BBC correspondent
-
- Sagal Mustafe Hassan, a stringer for U.S. Congress-funded
Voice of America (VOA)
-
- Mohamed Abdi Ilig, a reporter and chairperson of MM Somali
TV
-
- Mohamed Jamal Jirde, a cameraperson with MM Somali TV
-
- Aidarus Mohamed, a reporter and regional bureau chief with
the Mogadishu-headquartered Goobjoog Media Group
-
- Ahmed Nur Samrawi, a Bulsho TV reporter
-
- Ahmed Said Hassan Shimali, a Horn Cable TV reporter
-
- Ahmed Mohamud Yusuf, a Saab TV camera operator
Police and intelligence officers at the scene also tried to
arrest another journalist, CBA TV reporter and manager Hamza Hirsi Hayd, but he
was allowed to go free after the officers argued and failed to agree about
whether he should be taken into custody, according to the journalist, who spoke
to CPJ via messaging app, and another person familiar with his case who
requested anonymity for safety concerns.
Sagal and Naima were released after about three to four
hours in custody, according to the same sources, a VOA statement shared with
CPJ via email, and Naima, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. VOA said that
authorities did not provide a reason for Sagal’s arrest.
Naima told CPJ she was held at the intelligence
headquarters, where officers searched her phone and accused her of undermining
national security and recording “sensitive matters.” She said that the officers
beat and kicked her, including hitting her in the face. She said she suffered
aches all over her body and on one of her hands, that eight of her teeth in
“fragile condition,” and that she visited a local dentist who gave her
painkillers.
After raiding the Horn Cable TV offices, security personnel
arrested reporters Abdijabar Mohamed Hussein, Mohamed Suldan Ahmed, and Khalid
Mohamed Aleeli, as well as camera operators Ayanle Abdi Buni, Mustafa Muhumed
Abdi, and Abdifatah Mohamud Ismail, according to Abdikarim. Sakaria, at the
April 13 press conference, said that security personnel also confiscated two
cameras.
During the April 13 press conference, Sakaria said five
journalists were held at the Hargeisa Central Police station while the
whereabouts of the rest were unclear. The SJS reported that seven of the
journalists were held at the intelligence headquarters while the rest were held
at the central police station in Hargeisa, a report corroborated by Abdikarim
and Abdishakur Dayib Mohamed, director of MM Somali TV, who spoke to CPJ via
messaging app.
Bulsho TV director Ali Farah Hardi and Goobjoog Media’s
deputy director Abdiaziz Ahmed Gurbiye told CPJ via messaging app that they
were unsure where the journalists from their stations are detained.
CPJ’s calls and messages to Somaliland Police Commissioner
General Mohamed Adan Saqadhi, Intelligence Chief Mohamed Salebaan Hasan, and
Justice Minister Salebaan Warsame Guleed were not answered. CPJ could not
immediately find contact information for the prison security head Ahmed Awale
Yusuf. CPJ sent queries for comment via Facebook and Twitter to Somaliland’s
ministries of justice, information, and foreign affairs but did not receive a
response. A query sent via Twitter to the office of the Somaliland president
was also unanswered.