Somali journalists targeted by government and Shabaab alike – report

Somalia’s journalists operate in one of Africa’s most dangerous zones. But a new report says federal and local government officials operate beyond the law to punish reporters and media houses “with impunity”.

The details are contained in a report for 2021 published on Wednesday by a press lobby, the National Union of Somali Journalists (Nusoj).

Journalists are usually targeted by Al-Shabaab militants and other gunmen. In 2021, two senior journalists were killed by unknown assailants. Jamal Farah Aadan, 56, was gunned down on March 1 in Galkaayo, Galmudug state. Later in November, Abdiazizi Mohamud Guled, aka ‘Africa’, a veteran radio broadcaster who criticised the Shabaab on his shows, was blown up in a car park.

A suicide bomber standing near the window of his car blew himself up, killing the journalist as well. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility in both cases.

But government officials are not spared the blame. In 2021, the report says, 34 journalists were arrested and detained without charge and four private media houses were targeted, some temporarily shut down mostly for reporting subjects that didn’t please the authorities.

Violent attacks

The report, Trail of Violence: Somali Journalists Bear the Brunt of Impunity, says there were 63 reported cases of violent attacks, harassment, especially of female journalists, unlawful arrests, detentions, torture, cyberbullying and threats directed at journalists. The document says this is an “an overt and concerted effort to intimidate and weaken the entire industry”.

Nusoj secretary-general Omar Faruk Osman said the findings “leave no question in anyone’s mind that journalists and news media organisations in Somalia work under extremely dangerous conditions”.

“It is important for the public to understand the culture of impunity under which these attacks and killings take place,” he said in Mogadishu on Wednesday.

“The lack of accountability means perpetrators, those directly involved in the crimes and those who sanction them with action or inaction continue their lives unaffected while the victims and their families receive no form of justice.”

The documented cases, the report says, are both incidents where the rights of journalists were violated by state and non-state actors and those exposing where media freedom is impeded.

‘Permanent feature’

Nusoj says threats and attacks had become a “permanent feature” in Somalia. The group documented evidence of intimidation and harassment of journalists in Mogadishu, Somaliland and all the five federal states of Southwest, Jubbaland, Hirshabelle, Puntland and Galmudug.

The group also said: “Arrests are usually brief and arbitrary, intended to serve as warning shots to journalists to cease their critical and independent reporting on government activities and officials.”

Oddly, Nosuj has stressed that security agencies, particularly the police, are the leading perpetrators of attacks against journalists, meaning that those who are meant to protect them are, in fact, inflicting and exposing media professionals to harm and injury.

The association cited impunity as it documented 16 cases of gender-based violence against female journalists.

“The abuse and violence experienced by women journalists unfortunately feeds into a broader culture of gender inequality and gender-based violence in Somalia and significantly impacts the personal, emotional and professional trajectory of female journalists,” the report says.

Somalia has for the past decade been considered one of Africa’s most dangerous places to work as a journalist.