#Somalia
Some of the highest rates of impunity in the murders of journalists can be attributed to killings by Islamist militant groups, CPJ found in its latest Global Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where journalists are murdered and their killers go free. The worst country for the second year in a row is Somalia, where the militant group al-Shabaab is suspected in the majority of media murders, followed by Iraq and Syria, where members of the militant group Islamic State murdered at least six journalists in the past year.
In an attempt to keep news of troop deaths quiet, government arrests reporters circulating information online
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On Sunday, June 5, three reporters were killed: Somali broadcast journalist Sagal Salad Osman, Aghan journalist Zabihullah Tamanna, and American photojournalist David Gilkey.
Gilkey and Tamanna, who was Gilkey’s interpreter and fixer were killed together in Afghanistan.
Fixer is a term for a local journalist who helps international journalists find sources and stories when they are visiting a foreign country, however in media reports on international journalist deaths, they are often not recognised as also being journalists.
“Drivers, fixers, translators, are by definition probably also local journalists. There were cases in Afghanistan and Iraq, where translators were targeted for working with Americans, both journalists and military. That shows how local fixers and local journalists are often at greater risks,” Courtney Radsch, Advocacy Director for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said.
“Local journalists are the one who mostly get harassed, killed, or arrested, because they report on local issues around corruptions and politics, which in certain cases is even more dangerous than war. It is much more common for them to become a target. It is less common for a foreign journalist to be arrested.”
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A Somali journalist with state-run media was killed today in Mogadishu when a bomb blew up her car, according to news reports. Hindia Haji Mohamed was the widow of another journalist killed in an attack in Mogadishu in 2012.
Hindia was a producer and reporter with the state-run outlets Radio Mogadishu and Somali National TV. A bomb planted under the seat of her car was detonated by remote control, a journalist familiar with the case, who asked not to be named, told CPJ. Reports said Hindia was leaving university at the time of the attack. She was taken to a local hospital where she died a few hours later, the journalist said.
In the past five years, 25 journalists have been killed in Somalia for their work, and the country ranks at the top of CPJ’s Global Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where journalists are murdered regularly and their killers go unpunished.
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Image:
Security officers investigate after a car bomb killed Somali journalist Hindia Haji Mohamed. (AFP/Mohamed Abdiwahab)
Impunity Spotlight: Somalia
Abdirizak Ali Abdi,Freelance
November 16, 2014, in Galkayo, Puntland, Somalia
Two unknown, hooded gunmen shot Abdirisak Ali Abdi in the head and chest while he was sitting in a restaurant in the northern suburb of Galkayo town, according to news reports and the director of Daljir Radio, Mohamed Abdulahi, who spoke to CPJ. The two gunmen fled the scene before police arrived. Abdirisak died while receiving treatment for his injuries at Mudug General Hospital, the same sources said.
Read more about Abdirizak Ali Abdi.
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Somalia is #1 on CPJ’s 2015 Impunity Index, which calculates the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each country’s population. This month CPJ is highlighting cases from each of the 14 countries on the list ahead of the International Day to End Impunity on November 2.
Somalia
Not one year has passed over the last decade without a journalist being murdered in civil war-wracked Somalia, which first appeared on the index in 2008. At least 30 journalists have been murdered without any consequence for the perpetrators in this index period, the majority targeted by Al-Shabaab militants who for years have threatened and assaulted journalists in relation to their coverage of the group’s activities. While the government has pinned its impunity problem on the political instability and shortage of resources inflicted by 20 years of civil war, journalists say authorities fail to conduct even minimal investigations when journalists are killed. In April, unidentified armed men broke into the home of Daud Ali Omar at night and killed him and his wife while they were sleeping. Daud was a producer for a privately owned, pro-government radio station, and local journalists and police said they suspected Al-Shabaab was responsible.
IMPUNITY INDEX RATING: 2.857 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants
LAST YEAR: Ranked 2nd with a rating of 2.549
A CPJ report on impunity.
See the whole compilation at reportagebygettyimages
Image credits, from top (all Getty Images Reportage):
Laurent Van der Stockt/Syria,
Alvaro Ybarra Zavala/Colombia,
Veronique de Viguerie/Somalia,
Ed Ou/Somalia,
Brent Stirton/Kenya
from the pulitzercenter
MICHAEL SCOTT MOORE
One afternoon two years into my captivity, in a dirty villa, I sat up on the mattress and noticed that my guard had left the room. His rifle lay on a mat. I considered grabbing it.
The pirates were holding me in Galkacyo, a regional capital in central Somalia. They told me it was Haradheere, near the coast, but I knew Haradheere had no commercial airport, and at first the pirates would giggle every time we heard passenger planes take off and land.
I had seen the dull and dusty buildings of Galkacyo’s airport as a free man, and now the aircraft noise inspired baroque dreams of freedom – fantasies ranging from a quiet release on the tarmac to a clandestine gathering of Black Hawks and commandos in the dead of night.
My guard, Bashko, came in and noticed the gun. He picked it up by the muzzle, nimbly, and sat down with a brilliant smile.
“Problem!” he said, meaning the unattended firearm.
He rested it behind him and munched a stem of khat, a leafy green plant that acts as a stimulant. His eyes were fervid. I had just been wondering how many of the guards I could shoot before they shot me. I smiled. I was – or had been – a peaceful man. I didn’t want to kill him, or anyone. But I was going nuts.
“Michael,” Bashko said with good humour. “If the Americans come, you will be killed.”
“I know.”
“Why no money?” he asked, referring to the ransom the pirates had demanded.
I shrugged.
Continue reading.
Image:
Farah Abdi Warsameh
Gunmen kill a radio journalist in Somalia
Unidentified armed men on Wednesday night shot dead Somali journalist Daud Ali Omar at his home, according to local journalists and news reports.
The gunmen broke into Daud’s house at around 1 a.m. in the Bardaale neighborhood in the south-central city of Baidoa while the journalist and his wife, Hawo Abdi Aden, were sleeping, news reportsand local journalists said. The gunmen shot the two dead and fled the scene before the police arrived, the reports said. Daud and his wife leave behind three children, local journalists said.
Read more.
Image:
REUTERS/Ismail Taxta
Somali journalist shot by gunmen in Mogadishu
Two gunmen shot Farhan
Suleiman Dahir
in the Hodan district of the capital on Friday evening as he was returning home from work, according to news reports and four local journalists who spoke to CPJ. The assailants fled the scene before police arrived, the same sources said.
Farhan was taken to a local hospital where he is receiving treatment for injuries to his arms, chest, back, and head, local journalists who visited him in the hospital told CPJ. Doctors removed a bullet from the journalist’s skull and another from his kidney. He is in critical condition, the sources said.
Farhan, a photographer for the websites of Radio Mogadishu and the state-run Somali National Television, often traveled with military convoys to cover clashes between government troops and Al-Shabaab militants, the local journalists said. They told CPJ they suspected that Al-Shabaab militants had targeted Farhan because he worked for state-run media. The journalists said they did not know if Farhan had received any threats before the attack.
Read more.
Image:
REUTERS/Feisal Omar
