Friday, August 02, 2013
WHEN Liban Abdullahi Farah was gunned down in Galkayo, a city in the
central province of Puntland, in July, he became the sixth journalist to
die violently in Somalia this year. This comes as a media law just
introduced in Mogadishu, the capital, forces journalists to reveal their
sources, curtailing whatever press freedom existed previously.
In Somaliland, an autonomous region in the country’s north,
independence-minded leaders tout media freedom as one of several
democratic achievements. But they are beginning to display some of their
big brothers’ ugly traits. In April an off-duty policeman and an
accomplice attacked the offices of Hubaal, a
newspaper, in Hargeisa, the capital. Its manager, Mohamed Ahmed Jama
Aloley, was beaten and shot. He suffered a broken arm before colleagues
could wrestle his assailants to the ground.
The paper’s woes were far from over. In June it was suspended after
publishing a series of articles criticising the regional president,
Ahmed Mahamoud Silanyo. The editor-in-chief, Hassan Hussein Kefkef,
received a two-year prison sentence for slander and false reporting. Out
on bail pending an appeal, he complains of a government “in the
shadows”.
Unlike in the rest of Somalia, the laws of Somaliland explicitly
protect the freedom of the press. Yet few follow them. Nonetheless,
Somaliland’s media industry is thriving. Hargeisa alone boasts 13
newspapers publishing in Somali and English.
Abdirashid Jibril Yusuf, the director-general of the information
ministry, says the government is merely trying to stamp out sloppy
practices. He is keen on better media training as well as stiffer
penalties. “When we have more professional journalists who know their
mistakes, we can control [the media].”
Somaliland is keen on foreign investment. “We are peaceful, unlike
Mogadishu,” one official claims. Messrs Aloley and Kefkef may beg to
differ