{"id":93170,"date":"2022-10-20T04:30:22","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T02:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/central-africa\/dr-congo\/somalia-free-detained-journalist\/"},"modified":"2022-10-20T04:30:23","modified_gmt":"2022-10-20T02:30:23","slug":"somalia-free-detained-journalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/central-africa\/dr-congo\/somalia-free-detained-journalist\/","title":{"rendered":"Somalia: Free Detained Journalist"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The\u00a0Somali<\/a>\u00a0authorities should immediately release a prominent journalist and media rights advocate who is being held and investigated on apparently politically motivated allegations. Abdalle Ahmed Mumin has been detained since October 11, 2022, in intelligence and later police custody in Mogadishu, the capital.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Abdalle is the secretary general of the Somali Journalists Syndicate and a veteran freelance reporter. On October 11, in the late afternoon, National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) officers arrested him at Aden Adde International Airport, as he prepared to board a flight for Nairobi.<\/p>\n

\u201cLocking up a committed media rights advocate such as Abdalle Ahmed Mumin sends a chilling message to all journalists in Somalia,\u201d said\u00a0Laetitia Bader<\/a>, Horn of Africa director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cThe authorities should immediately release Abdalle and create a safe and open environment for the media.\u201d<\/p>\n

On October 8, the Information Ministry\u00a0released a directive<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cprohibited dissemination of extremism ideology messages, both from traditional media broadcasts and social media,\u201d and announced the suspension of \u201cmore than 40 social media pages where terrorists have been spreading intimidation, incitement, and wrong messages.\u201d On October 10, the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) and four other media organizations released a statement raising concerns that the directive could\u00a0restrict legitimate speech and media freedoms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the morning of October 11, Abdalle had tweeted CCTV footage reportedly taken outside the SJS\u2019 office in Mogadishu the previous night, showing security forces trying to enter the office.<\/p>\n

Abdalle\u2019s lawyer, a relative, and two colleagues told Human Rights Watch they were denied access to Abdalle during his initial detention at Godka Jillaow, one of the main detention facilities run by the intelligence agency.<\/p>\n

On October 12,\u00a0the Information Ministry released a statement<\/a>\u00a0that Abdalle was being \u201cheld on security related charges,\u201d and that he \u201chas no charges related to his work as a journalist<\/a>.\u201d The statement called on the prosecutor\u2019s office to provide the evidence for his arrest.<\/p>\n

On October 13, Abdalle was transferred to the police Criminal Investigation Department. Later that day, the authorities took him to the Office of the Attorney General, and before the Benadir Regional Court.<\/p>\n

During the court hearing, the prosecutors said that they were investigating Abdalle for violating the government\u2019s new directive and publishing \u201csecret\u201d footage. They sought to have him remanded pending investigations. Abdalle\u2019s lawyers asked the prosecutors to clarify the provisions under which he was being investigated, but this information was not provided. The court returned Abdalle to Criminal Investigation Department custody until October 16.<\/p>\n

Media freedoms have been a major casualty of Somalia\u2019s long-running armed conflict. During President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud\u2019s previous administration,\u00a0journalists faced intimidation and violence from both the government and the Islamist armed group Al-Shabab<\/a>. In Mogadishu, security officials, including NISA, had banned reporting on statements by Al-Shabab, temporarily closed down at least three media outlets, and arbitrarily arrested journalists.<\/p>\n

Abdalle had previously received threats and\u00a0survived an attack in early 2015<\/a>\u00a0following his reporting in the\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0on the killing of Al-Shabab\u2019s leader, which forced him to flee the country. Since returning to Mogadishu, Abdalle has been detained twice, notably in\u00a0October 2021 alongside two other colleagues<\/a>, while organizing a training session on media freedom in the town of Jowhar.<\/p>\n

Security forces have often justified arrests of journalists and shuttering of media outlets on national security grounds. The apparent goal frequently is to silence legitimate reporting on key issues of public concern, Human Rights Watch said.<\/p>\n

Since returning to power in May, President Hassan Sheikh has expressed a commitment to key legal reforms. However, the new directive adds to an outdated criminal code that restricts the right to free expression, and has regularly been\u00a0used to hamper critical reporting<\/a>. In 2020, the\u00a0media law was amended<\/a>\u00a0and includes vaguely worded provisions on criminal penalties that could give law enforcement authorities a wide scope for misinterpretation and abuse, including prohibiting reporting on issues deemed to conflict with \u201cnational interest\u201d\u00a0and \u201cdissemination of propaganda.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hassan Sheikh administration should take urgent steps to end all harassment and arbitrary arrests of journalists by the intelligence and other security forces, Human Rights Watch said. Somalia\u2019s international partners should press the government to commit to full, open reporting on issues of critical public interest, and amend or repeal laws that restrict the right to freedom of expression and the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe detention of Abdalle Ahmed Mumin raises serious concerns about the new administration\u2019s commitment to media freedom,\u201d Bader said. \u201cThe Somali government needs to stop curtailing legitimate news coverage and free speech by making baseless national security claims.\u201d<\/p>\n

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Human Rights Watch (HRW).<\/i><\/p>\n