The mayor of Mogadishu Mohamed Omar Habeb Mohamed Dhere has blamed three
local FM radio stations of airing forged news about the resignation of
some local officials and he described that news as “spurious” and he
asked those radios to elucidate on there news swiftly
Speaking to localradio on Tuesday night Mohamed Dhere has rebuffed on
the subject of the resignation of some local officials for fearing their
life after they received death threat phone calls from the resistance
fighters and he reiterated that those news were a humiliation against his
regional Banadir administration.
“ We are asking the radios of Holy Quran radio, Somali weyn radio and
Banadir radio to convey us documents declaring about the authenticity of
their aired news if other they will face justice tough measure on their
phony hearsay news” Mohamed Dhere furiously said in his interview
Mr. Dhere’s remark comes as reports on the resignation of some of
Banadir administration district officials emerged for the last days that
Mohamed Dhere refuted.
Else where the threats and intimidation against the independent media
in mogadishu comes as The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ)
has issued a statement condemning "in the strongest possible terms"
attacks on Mogadishu radio stations by the armed forces of the
Transitional Federal Government. The statement said government troops
raided the offices of the independent Radio Simba on March 2, taking away
computers, audio recorders, digital cameras and other equipment. Reporter
Abdiaziz Hussein Hassan was beaten in the raid. One day earlier, a rocket
hit Radio Simba, destroying the station's archive. A few minutes after
the raid on Simba, soldiers broke down the doors of Shabelle Radio, again
confiscating equipment, and detaining station director Shabele Muktar
Mohamed Hirabe. Security forces also visited the offices of Horn Afrik
Radio and ordered them to stop broadcasting.
Amnesty International accuses the Somali transitional government of a
systematic campaign against the press. "The killings, arrests and death
threats targeting Somali journalists are not just another unfortunate
by-product of the conflict and general insecurity in Somalia – they are a
deliberate and systematic attempt by all parties to the conflict to stem
the flow of information out of the country," said Michelle Kagari of
Amnesty's Africa Program.
mareeg Media Network
