Most of these press freedom violations were connected to coverage of national security issues, including the protracted conflict between the government and the militant group Al-Shabaab.

Since Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud declared a “total war” on the Al-Shabaab following his 2022 election, the government has attempted to censor media coverage of the militant group’s “extremism ideology.” Amid a deteriorating security situation, with Al-Shabaab’s recent bombing near a presidential convoy and attacks  on strategic government positions, authorities have stepped up efforts to control public discourse.

On March 6, Information Minister Daud Aweis Jama said there was a ban on publishing “statements or news” that could threaten national security or “misuse or fabricate information, whether directly or indirectly.” Press freedom and human rights groups interpreted these broad directives, which echoed an October 2022 statement by the administration, as censorship.  

“The government is really trying to control the narrative, to shape discussions around how it is handling the security situation in the country,” said Abdullahi Hassan, a conflict researcher covering Sudan and Somalia at rights group Amnesty International. “The repression against the media and the attacks on journalists that you are seeing are aimed at silencing government critics and are directly related to those efforts to shape the narrative”

Since March 15, CPJ has documented the following violations in the Somali capital Mogadishu, based on media reports, research by local rights groups the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) and the Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ), and interviews with affected journalists:

● On March 15, National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) officers raided the home of RTN Somali TV reporter Bahjo Abdullahi Salad and arrested her. Authorities held her for about four hours in connection to a now-deleted TikTok video, in which she commented on the failure to clear rubbish in a Mogadishu district.

●  On March 18, police raided the offices of the Risaala Media Corporation after the station aired footage of the site of the bomb attack on the presidential convoy and briefly detained five journalists. Officers briefly held at least 17 other journalists covering the attack as well.

●  On March 26, police raided the family home of online journalist Mohamed Ibrahim Osman Bulbul, after he published a series of interviews critical of NISA and covered Al-Shabaab actions. Mohamed Ibrahim, who also works as the information and human rights secretary at SJS, was not home at the time but went into hiding for about three weeks. He told CPJ he was continuing to keep a low profile due to safety concerns.

● On March 28, police officers briefly detained three Himilo TV journalists — Abdirazak Haji Sidow, Anisa Abdiaziz Hussein, and Abdullahi Abdulqadir Ahmed — as well as two journalists from the privately owned news outlet Mustaqbal Media — Abdirizak Abdullahi Adan and Abdirahman Barre Hussein —  while they were covering a protest against sexual violence.

● On April 1, police raided the offices of Five Somali TV and arrested journalists Mohamed Roraye, Ahmed Mohamud, Mohamed Abdi Afgooye, Dahir Dayah, following a report alleging the disappearance of police officers. The journalists were released later that day.

● On April 28, police arrested Risaala TV journalists Abuukar Mohamed Keynaan and Abdirashid Adow Ibrahim while they were covering a mortar attack, accusing them of exaggerating the Al-Shabaab’s actions. They were released unconditionally the same day.

● On April 29, security agents shot at and briefly detained Shabelle Media Network journalists Shukri Aabi Abdi and Najib Farah Mohamed as well as Hiiraanweyn TV correspondent Hussein Osman Makaraan and Saab TV’s Deeq Moalim Jiinow while they were interviewing displaced people. The journalists were not injured.

● On May 5, at around 1 a.m., NISA agents raided the home and media studio of journalist Mohamed Omar Baakaay, who runs a news channel on YouTube,while he was away, the journalist told CPJ. The officers beat and arrested Baakaay’s 17-year-old brother and MM Somali TV’s Bashir Ali Shire, who was also staying there.Authorities released them later that day, without providing reason for the arrest, said Baakaay.

Information minister Daud Aweis and police spokesperson Abdifatah Adan Hassan did not respond to CPJ’s requests for comment sent via messaging app. CPJ also emailed NISA, the Somali presidency, and the information ministry for comment, but did not immediately receive any replies.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“Mohamed Abukar Dabashe’s death is devastating. Unfortunately, he joins a long list of Somali journalists killed in Al-Shabaab attacks with impunity,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Muthoki Mumo. “Somali authorities should investigate the killing of Mohamed Abukar Dabashe and desist from further intimidation and censorship of journalists who are already operating under difficult circumstances.”

Mohamed Abukar’s body was found in a collapsed building, where he is reported to have lived, near the attack site. He worked with Risaala Media Corporation until 2023, and had recently been publishing his journalism on Facebook and the YouTube news channel Sirta Waraka, Risaala’s director Mohamed Abduwahab Abdullahi told CPJ.

Armed police raided Risaala’s offices about 20 minutes after it broadcast footage of the explosion site, ordered its radio and television channels off air, and arrested reporters Ali Abdullahi Ibrahim and Hamda Hassan Ahmed; camera operators Mohamed Said Nur and Abdullahi Sharif Ali; and technician Liban Abdullahi Hassan, according to Mohamed Abduwahab, who is also secretary general of the Somali Media Association, and a statement by the Somali Journalists Syndicate rights group.

The journalists were detained for about two hours at a police station, where they were warned not to broadcast such content, and released without charge. Risaala had resumed operations by the evening. 

Police also briefly detained at least 17 other journalists at the attack site and questioned them at a local station about their coverage, three journalists familiar with the incident, who are not being named due to safety concerns, told CPJ.

Police spokesperson Abdifatah Adan Hassan told CPJ by phone that police were trying to verify the identities of journalists at the site but did not make any arrests and that Risaala staff were asked to leave their office for safety.

CPJ’s calls to request comment from information minister Daud Aweis were not answered.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“Somali authorities must immediately free journalist AliNur Salaad, drop all legal proceedings against him, and allow journalists to report and comment freely on public affairs,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program, in New York. “Somalia must end its practice of harassing and arbitrarily detaining journalists.”

On July 22, police officers arrested Salaad, founder and CEO of the privately owned Dawan Media, and detained him at Waberi District police station in the capital Mogadishu, according to media reports and the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) rights group.

Those sources linked Salaad’s detention to a social media video, which has since been deleted, in which the journalist allegedly suggested that Somali security forces were vulnerable to attacks by the militant group Al-Shabaab because of their consumption of the narcotic khat.

The Banadir Regional Police said Hassan had been arrested on allegations of “immorality, false reporting, and insulting the armed forces,” according to a statement published by the state-run Somali National Television.

On July 23, Salaad was charged without a lawyer present before the Banadir Regional Court, which has jurisdiction over Mogadishu, and remanded for 45 days in custody pending investigations, SJS said on X, formerly Twitter.

Attorney General Sulayman Mohamed Mohamoud and Deputy Information Minister Abdirahman Yusuf Omar Al Adala did not respond to CPJ’s requests for comment via messaging app.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Two commercial banks, Premier Bank and Dahabshil Bank International told the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) on April 13 and April 17, respectively, that they had suspended the organization’s accounts on orders from the Banadir Regional Court, whose jurisdiction includes the Somali capital Mogadishu, according to copies of the banks’ emails reviewed by CPJ.

On April 15, IBS Bank orally informed SJS officials in Mogadishu that it had suspended the organization’s accounts, also citing court orders, according to Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, the syndicate’s secretary general, who spoke to CPJ via email and messaging app.  

Abdalle told CPJ, that as of April 19, SJS and its lawyers have not officially received copies of the court’s suspension orders. However, Abdalle said the organization independently acquired, through its sources, a copy of the court’s directive to Premier Bank. In the April 9 letter, which SJS republished with a statement on April 14, the court said that the suspension order was in response to a report submitted by Somalia’s Office of the Attorney General, alleging that Abdalle and “his media organization used a fake media license to open the account and conduct illegal press activities while the organization named Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) is not registered.” The letter also authorized the attorney general to investigate SJS on these allegations and asked the banks to cooperate with this inquiry.

In an April 16  statement published on Facebook, Somalia’s Office of the Attorney General confirmed that it had submitted a report to the court, reiterated the allegations that SJS registered its accounts with “fake documents,” and said that the organization had breached sections of Somalia’s penal code that criminalize defamation, without specifying whom the organization was accused of defaming. The statement said that the attorney general would file charges against SJS once the investigations were concluded.

“The investigations into the allegations of criminal offenses by SJS are apparent acts of retaliation and the latest attacks on an organization that has been staunchly vocal about Somalia’s poor press freedom record,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator, Muthoki Mumo, in Nairobi. “Somali authorities should stop the legal harassment of the syndicate and reform the country’s laws to scrap criminal defamation, in line with international and regional standards on freedom of expression.”

SJS is under investigation for allegedly breaching sections of the penal code that punish the falsification of documents and certificates with up to 64 months in prison and impose a prison term of up to three years for defamation convictions, according to the statement by the attorney general, which does not state whether any specific SJS official would be criminally liable for these offenses. The organization is also accused of contravening sections of Somalia’s press law that require media outlets and training organizations to register with the ministry of information or face fines and prosecutions.

Abdalle said that the freeze on the SJS bank accounts was already having a “significant impact” on SJS’ work, but the organization remains “committed to advocating for press freedom, the safety of journalists, and human rights.”

He added, “We are actively engaging our legal team to address this matter, but our efforts can only succeed if the rule of law is upheld.”

CPJ has documented previous incidents targeting the organization, including  the arbitrary detention of the Syndicate’s staff, including Abdalle, and the organization’s human rights secretary Mohamed Ibrahim Osman Bulbul. In September 2023, cyberattacks temporarily knocked the organization’s website offline.

The office of the attorney general did not respond to CPJ’s queries sent via email; and Attorney General Sulayman Mohamed Mohamoud did not respond to requests for comment sent via messaging application or answer CPJ’s calls.

In their emails responding to CPJ’s queries, Premier Bank Head of Operations, Mahad Ahmed Mohamed, and Dahabshil Bank International’s Head of Operations, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamoud, declined to comment on the account suspensions.

Mahad said that Premier Bank is restricted from disclosing client information by “strict privacy laws and ethical banking standards.” Mohamed told CPJ to consult the bank’s email to SJS for detailed information.

IBS Bank did not immediately respond to an email from CPJ requesting comment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Nick Turse.

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Nick Turse.

On January 6, intelligence agents raided the offices of MM Somali TV in the Somaliland capital, Hargeisa, interrupting a live debate that the station was hosting on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, about a controversial port deal between Ethiopia and Somaliland, according to a statement by MM Somali TV and news reports.

The agents arrested MM Somali TV chair Mohamed Abdi Sheikh, also known as Ilig, who was moderating the debate, Ilyas Abdinasir, a technician, and Mohamed Abdi Abdullahi, a reporter, according to those sources and a journalist familiar with the incident who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity due to safety concerns. Officers also arrested Hamse Fu’ad, a waiter at a neighboring restaurant, according to the journalist and a Facebook post by MM Somali TV.

Mohamed Abdi Abdullahi, Ilyas, and Hamse were released on January 9 without being charged, according to media reports, an MM Somali TV Facebook post and a statement by the Human Rights Center, a Hargeisa based non-governmental organization. Mohamed Abdi Abdullahi and Ilyas did not participate in the debate on X, which CPJ reviewed. The journalist who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity said he believed intelligence agents mistook the waiter Hamse for an MM Somali TV employee when they arrested him.

On January 13, Mohamed Abdi Sheikh appeared at a military court in Hargeisa, which ordered his indefinite remand, according to a Facebook post by MM Somali TV and a post on X by the Human Rights Center. The journalist was not charged with any crime, Guleid Ahmed Jama, a human rights lawyer following the case, told CPJ.

In a letter dated January 14 and published on Facebook by MM Somali TV, Abdirahman Eid Mohamed, the head of the prosecutor’s office in the Marodi-Jeh region, under whose jurisdiction Hargeisa falls, said that the intelligence agency did not have the power to investigate or produce suspects before a court, and directed that the case be handed over to the police force’s Criminal investigation Department (CID).    

“Somaliland authorities have once more demonstrated their shockingly low tolerance for free political debate,” said CPJ sub-Saharan Africa Representative Muthoki Mumo. “Mohamed Abdi Sheikh should be released unconditionally, and Somaliland authorities should desist from stifling media coverage of issues of public interest.”

CCTV footage capturing part of the raid and published by MM Somali TV on its Facebook page showed at least nine plain-clothed, intelligence personnel in the outlet’s office. One of the agents was recorded slapping the face of journalist Mohamed Abdi Abdullahi, also known as Andar.

The journalist who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity said that the intelligence officers confiscated equipment during the raid, including computers, cameras, and live broadcasting equipment.

In an interview following his release, reporter Mohamed Abdi Abdullahi said that moderator Mohamed Abdi Sheikh, who remains in detention, suffers from ulcers and did not eat during his first two nights behind bars.

On January 1, landlocked Ethiopia announced that it had signed a deal with Somaliland for the use of its Berbera port on the Gulf of Aden. The agreement triggered a diplomatic disagreement with Somalia, which accused Ethiopia of encroaching on its sovereignty. Somaliland’s 1991 declaration of independence from Somalia is not internationally recognized.

The January 6 live debate on X included two panelists arguing for and against the deal between Somaliland and Ethiopia. The audience was also given the opportunity to ask questions and contribute to the debate.

Panel host Mohamed Abdi Sheikh has been detained previously in connection to his journalism, including in April 2022, when he was arrested while covering a prison riot and was later sentenced to 16 months in prison, according to CPJ reporting at the time. He was released in July 2022 following a presidential pardon, according to news reports.

In an emailed statement to CPJ, Somaliland’s ministry of information said that Mohamed Abdi Sheikh was being “held for security reasons” without providing further details.

Somaliland attorney general Abdirahman Jama Hayaan declined to comment by phone and did not respond to questions sent via text message. Information minister Ali Hassan Mohamed did not respond to CPJ’s text messages. Emails to the Somaliland ministries of foreign affairs, interior, justice, and the office of the attorney general all returned error messages. CPJ could not find contact information for the National Intelligence Agency.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“Mohamed Ibrahim Osman Bulbul endured nearly two months of detention and faced punitive legal proceedings simply because he dared to report allegations of corruption,” said Muthoki Mumo, CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative. “While it is a relief that the case against Mohamed is over, Somali authorities owe it to him to investigate the circumstances under which he was detained arbitrarily and ensure that no journalists suffer similar ordeals in the future.”

Somali police detained Mohamed, an editor with the privately owned Kaab TV and the information and human rights secretary for the local press rights group Somali Journalists Syndicate, on August 17, a day after he published a report on allegations of corruption within the police force.

He was denied access to his lawyer and family and was charged in September with anti-national propaganda, bringing the Somali nation into contempt, causing false alarm, and publishing false news, according to the charge sheet reviewed by CPJ and a Somali Journalists Syndicate statement.

On September 25, a court in Mogadishu ruled that since Mohamed was a journalist, he could not be charged under the penal code and directed the prosecution to present new charges in conformity with the country’s media law, according to statements by the syndicate and a person familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity citing fear of professional retaliation. 

When the prosecution failed to present new charges against Mohamed during an October 11 hearing, the court discontinued the case.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“Mohamed Ibrahim Osman Bulbul endured nearly two months of detention and faced punitive legal proceedings simply because he dared to report allegations of corruption,” said Muthoki Mumo, CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative. “While it is a relief that the case against Mohamed is over, Somali authorities owe it to him to investigate the circumstances under which he was detained arbitrarily and ensure that no journalists suffer similar ordeals in the future.”

Somali police detained Mohamed, an editor with the privately owned Kaab TV and the information and human rights secretary for the local press rights group Somali Journalists Syndicate, on August 17, a day after he published a report on allegations of corruption within the police force.

He was denied access to his lawyer and family and was charged in September with anti-national propaganda, bringing the Somali nation into contempt, causing false alarm, and publishing false news, according to the charge sheet reviewed by CPJ and a Somali Journalists Syndicate statement.

On September 25, a court in Mogadishu ruled that since Mohamed was a journalist, he could not be charged under the penal code and directed the prosecution to present new charges in conformity with the country’s media law, according to statements by the syndicate and a person familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity citing fear of professional retaliation. 

When the prosecution failed to present new charges against Mohamed during an October 11 hearing, the court discontinued the case.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The findings provide new insight into how private companies are being used by malicious actors to try to suppress online reporting around the globe.

In its new report, Qurium said services from U.S. companies phoenixNAP and Aliat Data and U.K. company IPXO had been used to conduct cyberattacks against media websites during August of this year. Those sites belong to the Somali Journalists Syndicate press freedom group, Turkmen.news, an exile-run site covering Turkmenistan, and Nacionale, in Kosovo. All three outlets have previously faced censorship and intimidation efforts, including the arrest of employees, physical violence, and online harassment.

In August, the three media outlets were hit with distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, when internet traffic is deliberately directed at a website in order to knock it offline. The traffic used in the attacks came from Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, unique numbers assigned to internet-connected devices. 

While it remains unknown who ordered the attacks, Qurium technical director Tord Lundström told CPJ that his group was able to map out how the services of U.K. and U.S. companies were used to try to take the media outlets down. Aliat Data leased thousands of IPs from IPXO; those IPs were then routed through servers at phoenixNAP’s datacenter in Ashburn, Virginia, in order to hit the sites. Qurium was able to defend against the attacks, so the media sites remained accessible.

The companies respond

Qurium has been in contact with all three companies to alert them to the DDoS attacks. Aliat Data, the company that operated the IPs when the incidents took place, said that it didn’t conduct the cyberattacks. An email from Gustavo Colombini, who works on infrastructure at Aliat Data, said that the company doesn’t “perform these types of attacks.” Colombini blamed the attacks on “security issues that could lead to these IPs being abused by external actors,” and said Aliat Data was fixing the issues.

“[W]e were basically serving hand-picked customers,” Colombini wrote to Qurium. The attackers could not be identified, Colombini said, because Aliat Data “never had in place a good monitoring mechanism.” Colombini also said: “No customer of ours was likely launching any type of attack.”

In response to CPJ’s email requesting an interview, Colombini repeated that Aliat Data did not conduct the attacks. “[A] key piece of our infrastructure was abused by external forces and the issue was solved as soon as we diagnosed it. We are working to improve our security mechanisms and it includes better monitoring,” Colombini wrote.

IPXO, the company that leased the IPs to Aliat Data, said that its client provides services for “web-scraping,” a common research method. After Qurium alerted the company to the attacks, it “suspended” the client – which it did not name – while an “incident investigation” was ongoing. The company provided no further details of the suspension. 

phoenixNAP, whose servers were used to direct the traffic in the attack, told Qurium that the “client responsible” had informed the company that “all of this has been caused by misconfiguration from one of his [the client’s] customers.” phoenixNAP also didn’t name the client, saying “[u]nless it is requested by law enforcement, we can not disclose any information about our clients as it would be considered as a breach of contract…” It also said “we do not tolerate network abuse.”

As of mid-September, online databases showed Aliat Data still operated the IPs from phoenixNAP’s servers.

CPJ emailed IPXO and phoenixNAP requesting interviews, but neither responded.

The companies’ identities  

Both IPXO and phoenixNAP offer a variety of products and services on their websites. IPXO, based in London, bills itself as “The World’s First IP Marketplace” and sells access to IP addresses, including short term leases. Arizona-based phoenixNAP has 15 data centers around the world, and in 2012 acquired another computing company called Secured Servers. It sells information technology and computing services, including internet traffic routing.

Aliat Data’s website, on the other hand, offers little information about its business, but advertises “proxy” and “data scraping” services, which may be used to facilitate less clearly traceable internet traffic and conduct bulk information collection online. Its site lists a Las Vegas address for Aliat LLC, but Wyoming state records show a company named Aliat LLC registered through the firm Registered Agents Inc. 

A customer service representative at Registered Agents Inc. told CPJ by phone that it is the registered agent for thousands of companies and could not provide any “significant insights into [Aliat LLC’s] leadership.” The representative said Registered Agents Inc. receives and passes along state mail and lawsuits to its companies, and could share no information about those companies without permission.

Reporting last year by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the Washington Post detailed how business entities with little oversight may be used by alleged criminals to avoid scrutiny. They named Registered Agents Inc. in their coverage of the issues. The Registered Agents Inc. representative was not aware of previous reporting about the company.

Defense against the attacks 

Analysis of the IPs used to target the sites revealed a pattern that made defending against them more difficult. Qurium found that IPs used in the attacks had been routed through various locations over the years and months prior, initially obscuring the fact that it came from phoenixNAP’s Ashburn, Virginia, data center. This made it harder for Qurium to guard the websites from the malicious traffic, Lundström said. 

“You have no patterns, you just have noise everywhere. You see different countries, you don’t know if these are real [news] readers,” he said. 

The IPs leased by Aliat Data and involved in the attacks have not hit the three sites since late August, Lundström told CPJ. But questions of accountability – and the identities of those behind these attacks on independent media sites – remain. “That’s the power of DDoS,” he said. “It never comes with a signature.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Jonathan Rozen.

On the evening of August 12, Radio Baraawe director Osman Aweys Bahar heard gunshots outside the broadcaster’s offices in Barawe, the capital of Somalia’s South-West State. Osman and two other witnesses, who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity due to safety concerns, said they climbed onto the building’s roof and saw about four men firing guns on the street below. Osman and one of the witnesses said the men were firing at the Radio Baraawe building and when they shouted down to ask why, one gunman discharged his weapon towards the rooftop, forcing them to run inside. 

Osman said no one was injured, but he shared images with CPJ of bullet holes in the building, which he said were a result of the shooting.

Radio Baraawe, which broadcasts in the minority Barawani language, has remained off air since the incident. Osman told CPJ that his colleagues were afraid to go back to work and he had gone into hiding as security sector contacts warned him that he might be arrested.  The station is still publishing content on its Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Since leaving the city, Osman told CPJ that he had received several threatening calls from unknown people who warned him that they knew where he was hiding. He also shared with CPJ a screenshot of a threat sent on August 25 via Facebook direct message.

“No journalists should have to work with fear that they could be shot at their desks. This incident has effectively silenced a station that was a crucial source of news and information for a minority community,” said CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative, Muthoki Mumo. “Authorities in South-West State should independently investigate this incident, credibly establish the facts, and ensure accountability for those who carried out the shooting. They should provide safety guarantees so that Radio Baraawe’s staff can resume work.”

Osman said that he recognized some of the men as working for Liban Abukar Osman, the then-Barawe district commissioner,  whose office was opposite the Radio Baraawe building. Liban has since been dismissed from his post in an unrelated move.

Osman said he believed the attack was connected to Radio Baraawe’s August 8 broadcast about the death of a Barawe resident, whose family said he had been killed over a land dispute. The report was later posted on the outlet’s Facebook page. In a February interview with Radio Baraawe, the victim said that Liban had ignored his requests for help.

Liban told CPJ via messaging app that his security officers fired at a car that had crossed a checkpoint without authorization. He dismissed reports that the men were targeting Radio Baraawe as “propaganda” and said that his men only shot at the Radio Baraawe building in response to fire coming at them from the rooftop.

For their part, Osman and the two witnesses told CPJ that no one fired shots from Radio Baraawe’s roof that evening. However, Osman and one witness said they heard gunfire from a nearby police station behind the Radio Baraawe building around the same time.

Radio Baraawe has faced previous difficulties and Osman said he believed the station was targeted in part because it broadcasts in a minority language.

In April 2020, a local official said that he had banned Radio Baraawe from broadcasting in Barawani because it was a dialect and not a national language, according to a statement published by the Federation of Somali Journalists at the time. The ban was revoked a few days later, according to an SJS statement.

In January 2021, armed police raided the station, forced it off-air for two weeks and detained Osman for 10 days, according to the journalist and an SJS statement.

In June 2022, unidentified security personnel and some uniformed police officers raided Radio Baraawe, assaulted Osman, injuring one of his hands, and arrested him and another journalist, according to SOMA and SJS, as well as Osman, in an account published on Radio Baraawe’s Facebook account at the time.

CPJ’s requests for comment to the South-West State presidency via email and Facebook and to South-West State President Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed via X, formerly Twitter, did not receive any replies.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“It was a very traumatic week. Sleepless. Very stressful. We could not publish our statement, the first statement of Mohamed’s detention,” SJS secretary general Abdalle Ahmed Mumin told CPJ in an interview from the U.K., where he fled earlier this year after he was repeatedly arrested by Somali authorities. “Imagine someone attacking your team, detaining one of your team, and you’re not able to communicate to the international world because your website has been taken down.” 

SJS found some relief when it connected with Qurium, a Sweden-based nonprofit that began hosting SJS’s website. But a week after the initial attack, another DDoS flood hit the website. This time, Qurium was able to protect SJS from going offline. Qurium’s analysis of these additional attacks also found that a U.S. company, RayoByte, had provided the tools used in the attack.

Sprious, which owns RayoByte, told Qurium in an email, which CPJ reviewed, that it had “removed the abusive user” from its network and added the SJS site to its “blacklist” to prevent it from being targeted further. 

SJS isn’t the only news outlet that has suffered a DDoS attack using RayoByte’s services. News outlets from at least five other countries — Kosovo, Nigeria, Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines, and Turkmenistan — have faced similar attacks over the last two years, according to Qurium’s analysis. These incidents provide a rare look at the mechanics of online censorship efforts and how private corporations can profit from them. 

Sprious declined CPJ’s requests for an interview and did not directly answer a list of written questions. But in emailed statements to CPJ, Sprious said it was “deeply concerned” about reports that its services were “allegedly” used in DDoS attacks. “We firmly stand against any form of online harassment or harm, including cyber-attacks, especially when it concerns entities that play a crucial role in promoting press freedom and the safety of journalists,” it said. 

Headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska, RayoByte, formerly known as Blazing SEO, is one of many companies that sells clients access to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, unique numbers assigned to internet-connected devices, for “scraping,” a method for extracting large amounts of data from websites. RayoByte’s website lists a range of prices for access to IP addresses based on variables including type and speed.

One way to conduct scraping is through repeated requests to visit a site with different IP addresses. Journalists and researchers use scraping as a research technique, but when IP requests are directed quickly and en masse toward a specific site in order to overwhelm it and knock it offline, this constitutes a DDoS attack. 

CPJ has documented DDoS attacks against outlets conducting critical journalism around the world. These cyberattacks also often take place alongside other threats to journalists’ safety and press freedom. 

Qurium’s analysis shows that it blocked nearly 20,000 IP addresses from hitting the SJS website with millions of requests on August 18 and 19. The largest portion of the traffic (nearly 50%) came via RayoByte and its hosting partners, the analysis said. The second half of the traffic came through several other online channels, including virtual private networks (VPNs).

“We were very effective at mitigating the attack because within a few hours we realized we had seen this type of traffic before,” Qurium’s Lundström told CPJ. “We have met this [attacking] infrastructure in the past…this infrastructure is no joke.”

Similar DDoS attacks began almost immediately after Kosovo-based news site Nacionale began publishing in March 2022, covering local politics and social issues, co-founder Visar Arifaj told CPJ in a recent phone interview. “Our website would be down quite often. Because we were still fresh in the news market, it really had an impact for us to reach our audiences,” Arifaj said. “For us to be down a couple of hours during the day was a huge blow.” 

Qurium began hosting and defending Nacionale in September 2022, and in March and April 2023 Qurium notified Sprious that attackers had been using its services against the outlet. 

In emails from March, Qurium informed Sprious of attacks lasting “several hours non-stop.” One of the attacks “sourced” millions of web requests from IP addresses “publicly advertised by Rayobyte/BlazingSEO,” Qurium said. Sprious responded that it had “blacklisted” access to Nacionale’s website and it had barred the “user” responsible – which Sprious did not name — from accessing its services, but in April Qurium again tracked a DDoS attack against Nacionale involving RayoByte. In response to Qurium’s email about the April attack, Sprious said it had “discovered an issue” with its “security controls,” and had addressed it “to prevent further traffic.”

However, RayoByte-sourced internet traffic to Nacionale’s website did not stop and featured in DDoS attacks against the outlet in July and August, Lundström told CPJ. While Kosovo police arrested and prosecuted one man in connection with the cyberattacks and Qurium has successfully prevented the continued attacks from taking Nacionale offline, Lundström told CPJ that incoming traffic shows attackers continuing to harness IPs from a combination of proxy services, VPNs, and other sources. 

Alongside the cyberattacks, Nacionale’s staff have been subjected to “constant” online harassment for their work and were recently physically attacked on the job, though those attackers have been arrested, Arifaj told CPJ. “This constant pressure, even when it doesn’t get to the journalists physically and in a direct manner, you can see that it does a lot for their burnout,” he added. “It does take a toll, mentally, on everyone.”

Since 2022, Qurium has additionally tracked DDoS attacks with IPs sourced from RayoByte against four other outlets: Peoples Gazette from Nigeria, Kloop from Kyrgyzstan, Bulatlat from the Philippines, and Turkmen.news, which reports on Turkmenistan from exile. The attacks on three of the four outlets, excluding Kloop, also involved traffic via VPNs.

In its statements to CPJ, Sprious said it investigates reports of DDoS attacks using its services and takes “appropriate actions with the end user that we believe is responsible” and “steps to mitigate the reported issues, including, but not limited to, blacklisting associated domains and working diligently to remove abusive users.” The statements did not respond directly to CPJ’s requests for details of the customers responsible for these attacks and how the company responded in each case. 

Lundström told CPJ that Sprious has yet to respond to Qurium’s emails concerning the attacks on Peoples Gazette, Kloop, Bulatlat, and Turkmen.news, as well as the additional attacks on Nacionale in July and August. 

Proxies and VPNs have valid and important uses for ensuring internet users, including journalists, can maintain privacy online. Rights organizations, including CPJ, recommend the use of VPNs to defend against surveillance; individuals can use it to avoid state-backed online censorship, and companies use them to safeguard proprietary information. But Lundström described the use of proxy and VPN services to conduct DDoS attacks as a “weaponization” of these tools. “You’re hiding in a tool [made] for another purpose,” he said of the attackers. “I think it’s a strategic decision.”

“DDoS attacks are illegal under a section of the [U.S.] Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,” Gabe Rottman, director of the Technology and Press Freedom Project at the U.S.-based Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which provides legal support to journalists, told CPJ. But he said that it is not necessarily illegal for proxy or VPN companies’ to provide services that are then used in DDoS attacks.

That doesn’t mean service providers can’t take actions. “You can have technology providers doing appropriate things to protect their users and others at the same time as they build their service in a way that protects privacy,” Rottman said. “If … you become aware of bad actors doing bad things, notify the authorities, stop them from using your service, mitigate the damage.” 

Attacks on the SJS website have continued, Lundström told CPJ, though none of the IPs have come via RayoByte since Qurium and CPJ contacted Sprious for comment. Nevertheless, Lundström wants RayoByte’s leadership to do more to address the fact that attackers have repeatedly come to the company’s services to target media sites. “[RayoByte’s] making all the money,” he said. “And we have to do all this extra work and build new infrastructure to deal with all this shit.” 

As for SJS, Abdalle remains worried about his colleague, who is still behind bars. But he says he’s confident that the press freedom group’s website will remain accessible. He still doesn’t know the identity of the person or people who launched the cyberattack, but he imagines what they might be thinking: “Now they are witnessing, they are coming into a new reality that even after the attack SJS is still resilient. SJS is still active. SJS is still available and is able to work and operate effectively both online and physically inside Somalia.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Jonathan Rozen.

On August 17, four plain-clothed security personnel arrested Mohamed, a reporter with the privately owned broadcaster Kaab TV, at Mogadishu University, where he studies part-time, according to a statement by the Somali Journalists Syndicate, a local press freedom group, where Mohamed also works as the secretary of information and human rights.

The men, who did not identify themselves or have an arrest warrant, punched Mohamed in the chest, hit him on the shoulder with the butt of a pistol, and forced him into an unmarked vehicle, according to Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, secretary general of the SJS, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

On Wednesday, SJS said on X, formerly Twitter, that Mohamed was being held at the Hamar Jajab police station in the capital, Mogadishu, and had not been granted access to a lawyer or his family.

Separately, on August 15, police in Dhusamareeb, the capital of central Galmudug state, arrested Goobjoog TV reporter Abdifatah Yusuf Beereed while he was interviewing regional police officers about their salaries, according to the Federation of Somali Journalists, a local press rights group, and Abdifatah, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

Abdifatah said he was detained overnight before being released without charge, with a warning to avoid such reporting in future. Abdifatah told CPJ that the police returned his camera on August 17, but forced him to delete his video interviews.

“Somali authorities must allow journalists to report on the activities of the police; such journalism is matter of public interest that should be encouraged, not censored,” said CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative, Muthoki Mumo. “Authorities should unconditionally release journalist Mohamed Ibrahim Osman Bulbul and ensure that journalists can report on the security sector without fear of retaliation.”

During his detention, officers with the police Criminal Investigation Department questioned Mohamed about the sources for his August 16 report on Kaab TV, which alleged the embezzlement of European Union funds for training Somali police officers, Abdalle told CPJ.

On August 19, a court approved a police request to hold Mohamed for seven days without charge, pending investigation, according to Abdalle and Kaab TV. Abdalle said the police described Mohamed’s reporting as defamatory and accused him of spreading false information about corruption within the force.

CPJ’s emailed requests for comment to the Galmudug Ministry of Internal Security and the office of the Galmudug regional president, sent text messages to CID head Abdifatah Ali Hersi, sent and a direct message on X to the Somali Police Force, but did not receive any replies.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Anita Mureithi.

“Somali officials are demonstrating a disgraceful willingness to abuse legal processes to silence an outspoken reporter and press freedom advocate,” said Muthoki Mumo, CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative. “Abdalle Ahmed Mumin should be released without delay, those officials responsible for his ongoing persecution should be held individually accountable, and Somalia’s international partners should denounce this arrest as an act of aggression against press freedom.”

Officers arrested Abdalle during a public meeting convened by a senatorial committee, during which Abdalle was invited to speak, and did not show a warrant or explain why they were arresting him, according to media reports and Mohamed Ibrahim, president of the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS), a local media rights group that Abdalle cofounded and works at as secretary general. Abdalle was transferred to the central prison in Mogadishu.

On February 13, Abdalle was sentenced to two months in prison following a conviction of disobeying government orders, but he has been living in a state of legal limbo after prison officials refused to take him into custody, citing an interpretation of the law that would mean he had already served the prison time, according to a copy of the judgment reviewed by CPJ, a report by the U.S. Congress-funded Voice of America, and an SJS statement.

This is the latest chapter in four months of judicial harassment experienced by Abdalle since October 2022, after he voiced concern over a government directive on coverage of extremism that has the potential to censor the work of journalists.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“Somali officials are demonstrating a disgraceful willingness to abuse legal processes to silence an outspoken reporter and press freedom advocate,” said Muthoki Mumo, CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative. “Abdalle Ahmed Mumin should be released without delay, those officials responsible for his ongoing persecution should be held individually accountable, and Somalia’s international partners should denounce this arrest as an act of aggression against press freedom.”

Officers arrested Abdalle during a public meeting convened by a senatorial committee, during which Abdalle was invited to speak, and did not show a warrant or explain why they were arresting him, according to media reports and Mohamed Ibrahim, president of the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS), a local media rights group that Abdalle cofounded and works at as secretary general. Abdalle was transferred to the central prison in Mogadishu.

On February 13, Abdalle was sentenced to two months in prison following a conviction of disobeying government orders, but he has been living in a state of legal limbo after prison officials refused to take him into custody, citing an interpretation of the law that would mean he had already served the prison time, according to a copy of the judgment reviewed by CPJ, a report by the U.S. Congress-funded Voice of America, and an SJS statement.

This is the latest chapter in four months of judicial harassment experienced by Abdalle since October 2022, after he voiced concern over a government directive on coverage of extremism that has the potential to censor the work of journalists.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Since late January, authorities have suspended 15 foreign media outlets operating in Somali Regional State, and also revoked the license of a regional journalists’ association, according to news reports and people familiar with the cases.

“The recent suspensions of 15 media outlets the ban on a media association in Ethiopia’s Somali Regional State have eroded reporting in the region, and paint a picture of a government unwilling to make room for dissenting voices,” said CPJ Sub-Saharan Africa Representative Muthoki Mumo. “Authorities should allow journalists from these outlets to resume their jobs, ensure that enforcement of licensing regulations is not used to muzzle the media.”

On January 28, the Somali Regional State Communication Bureau,  a government office that oversees the region’s media, indefinitely suspended the 15 media outlets and their representatives from operating in the state, saying that they did not have the licensing required for foreign media outlets, according to a letter from the bureau reviewed by CPJ and multiple media reports.

Those outlets, all of which broadcast in the Somali language and have their headquarters outside of Ethiopia, include BBC Somali, Kalsan TV, Universal TV, Horyaal TV, Eryal TV, CBA TV, Horn Cable TV, Star TV, RTN Somali TV, STN TV, Goobjoog TV, Saab TV, Sahan TV, MM TV, and Five Somali TV, according to those sources.

In the letter, the communication bureau said it was complying with an earlier directive from the federal Ethiopian Media Authority to enforce federal licensing requirements. Federal regulations on foreign media registration, which came into force in May 2022, require foreign broadcasters opening a branch in the country to register with the media authority and prohibit journalists from contributing to foreign outlets without a registration certificate.

Abdulrazaq Hassan, chair of the Somali Region Journalists Association, a local media rights group, told CPJ via messaging app that most of those outlets did not have offices in Ethiopia, but instead worked with correspondents in the country.

The SRJA was quoted in those media reports saying that licensing was being used as pretext to shutter independent outlets, and that journalists from the 15 media companies had previously operated with permits from the regional communication bureau.

Abdulkadir Reshid Duale, the head of the Somali communication bureau, told CPJ in a statement that his office had issued temporary permits to the outlets in 2018, which had since expired. He said the media outlets had been warned about the need for federal licensing, and would be allowed to resume working once they had the federal license.

Journalists and managers from eight of the suspended outlets told CPJ that they had been previously granted permission to operate by regional authorities, that the steps to receive a federal license were not clear, and that the suspensions were enforced without adequate warning.

Also, on January 31, the Somali Region Justice Bureau, which oversees the registration of civil society organizations in the region, revoked the SRJA’s license and accused it of having “acted inappropriately,” according to a letter from the bureau reviewed by CPJ and a statement by the Center for Advancement of Rights and Democracy, an Ethiopian nongovernmental organization.

In a February 3 letter reviewed by CPJ, the communication bureau asked police and state security to take “appropriate action” against the SRJA, which it accused of operating illegally and “spreading incorrect and misleading messages.”

Separately, regional police detained Muhiyadin Mohammed Ali, a reporter with the U.K.-based broadcaster Kalsan TV, after he published a video on his personal Facebook page protesting the suspensions. He was released on February 2 without charge, according to news reports, a statement by the SRJA, and a person familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of retaliation.  In his statement, Abdikadir said Muyihadin threatened a government official in the video.

The Ethiopian Media Authority did not respond to CPJ’s queries sent via messaging app and email.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

Authorities arrested Abdalle, secretary-general of the Somali Journalists Syndicate press freedom group, on October 11, after the syndicate and other local rights groups raised concern that a government directive broadly prohibiting the “dissemination of extremism ideology” would negatively impact press freedom, as CPJ documented at the time.

Abdalle is free on bail while facing charges of bringing the Somali state into contempt, instigating disobedience of government orders, and nonobservance of government orders, the letter states, saying that he is due back in court on January 4.

The signatories called on Somali Attorney General Sulayman Mohamed Mohamoud to drop those charges, noting that Abdalle had suffered violations to his right to a fair trial and that his continued prosecution casts “a chilling effect on media freedom and journalism” in the country.

Find the letter here and its supplemental documents here.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

At least 120 people were killed in two car bomb explosions outside the education ministry offices, near the busy Zobe junction in Mogadishu, according to multiple media reports. The Al-Shabaab, a militant group linked to Al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to media reports.

Mohamed—also known as Koonaa—a reporter and producer with the privately owned M24 Somali TV online broadcaster, died at the scene of the explosions after suffering severe head injuries, according to M24 Somali TV’s chief executive officer and founder Abdiwali Abdullahi Hussein, also known as Keytoon, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, as well as separate statements by the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) and the Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ), two local press rights groups.

Reuters photographer Feisal Omar and Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulle, director of M24 Somali TV and a contributor to the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Voice of America (VOA), also were injured at the scene of the blasts, according to a VOA report and Reuters statement emailed to CPJ. All three journalists had rushed to the scene to report on the first blast when the second bomb exploded, the SJS statement, Abdiwali, and a Reuters spokesperson said. In addition, Bile Abdisalan, a security guard at the Reuters bureau, suffered minor injuries to his leg in the explosions, the Reuters spokesperson said in the statement.

“Mohamed Isse Hassan joins a long list of Somali journalists who have lost their lives in Al-Shabaab attacks, in a country considered one of the most hostile environments for the press. Unfortunately, these attacks are often characterized by a lack of accountability for the culprits,” said Muthoki Mumo, CPJ sub-Saharan Africa representative. “Mohamed and the other journalists and media workers injured in the attack on October 29 deserve justice. Authorities should ensure they receive it.”

Mohamed and Abdulkadir were at the M24 Somali TV offices near the Zobe junction when the first bomb exploded around 2 p.m., Abdiwali and a VOA report said. Both rushed to the scene to cover the first blast and were hit when the second explosion went off minutes later, as ambulances and other first responders arrived, Abdiwali and other media reports said. The Reuters spokesperson said that Feisal was taking photographs “when the secondary blast took place.”

Abdulkadir lost two fingers and had shrapnel wounds in his abdomen, the VOA report said. Abdiwali said that Abdulkadir was discharged from the hospital by October 31. The Reuters spokesperson said that Feisal was “fine and recovering at home” but still needed minor surgery to remove “some debris or shrapnel” that hit him in the torso.

Mohamed, who is survived by his wife and a six-month-old son, previously worked with various media outlets in Mogadishu, including privately owned Universal Somali TV, where he was a reporter until a few months ago, according to Abdiwali and Universal Somali TV East Africa director Abdullahi Hersi Kulmiye, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. Abdullahi said that Mohamed had also worked with the privately owned Somali outlets Radio Simba, Goobjoog Media Group, and Shabelle Media Network. Mohamed also published his reporting on his Facebook page using the brand Koonaa Media, according to CPJ’s review of that page.

Mohamed is the second journalist to be killed in connection to his work in Somalia this year. On September 30, state-media camera operator Ahmed Mohamed Shukur was killed in a bomb attack by Al-Shabaab. Five years ago, on October 14, 2017, journalist Ali Nur Siad was among at least 500 people killed after a truck bomb detonated at the Zobe junction. That attack was attributed to Al-Shabaab, though the group did not claim responsibility, media reports said.

In a telephone call on Tuesday evening, Somali police spokesperson Sadiq Dodishe asked CPJ to send queries via messaging app but had yet to respond to those questions by publication time. 

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“Abdalle Ahmed Mumin is a fearless and tireless advocate for the rights of Somali journalists to report the news freely and independently. His arrest is an unacceptable aggression and is undoubtedly sending a ripple of fear through the Somali media community,” said CPJ sub-Saharan Africa representative, Muthoki Mumo. “Authorities should release Abdalle Ahmed Mumin immediately and unconditionally, and should instead work to create a climate in which Somali journalists can work without fear.”   

About 5 p.m. on Tuesday, October 11, intelligence personnel at Mogadishu’s Aden Adde International Airport arrested Abdalle, cofounder and secretary general of the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS), according to the syndicate’s president and cofounder, Mohamed Ibrahim Isak, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, and Twitter posts from Somali media outlets. Abdalle, who was traveling to Nairobi at the time of arrest, has since been transferred to a detention facility managed by Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency, Mohamed said.

In a tweet published shortly before his arrest, Abdalle reported that intelligence officials had on Monday evening attempted to force entry into the syndicate’s office in Mogadishu, and harassed other tenants in the building. Mohamed said that he believed this raid and Abdalle’s arrest were connected to a Monday press conference, held at the syndicate’s Mogadishu office, in which a group of five local press rights groups condemned a recent government directive broadly banning intentional and unintentional “dissemination of extremism ideology” in the media and by the public.

Somalia’s deputy information minister Abdirahman Yusuf Omar, who also goes by Adala, told CPJ via messaging app that Abdalle’s arrest did not have to do with journalism or the journalist’s opinions. In response to a request to clarify why Abdalle had been arrested, he said he would share information once “security agencies finalize (the) issue.” Abdirahman said the ministry’s directive on extremism ideology was targeted at propaganda by the militant group Al-Shabaab and that the government “will not harm any freedom for its people.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“Ahmed Mohamed Shukur joins a long list of Somali journalists who have lost their lives while reporting the news, but his case must not become the latest example of a lack of accountability for attacks on the Somali press,” said Muthoki Mumo, CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative. “Somalia’s security and judicial organs must do everything possible to ensure a credible investigation into Ahmed Mohamed Shukur’s killing and to deliver justice through a transparent and fair process.”

Ahmed, 26, a camera operator with state-owned Somali National TV (SNTV), was killed in a bomb attack while covering a security operation against Somali militant group al-Shabab in the town of Basra, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the capital Mogadishu, according to SNTV social media posts and a statement by the Somali Journalists Syndicate, a local press rights group. Several other people were killed in the attack, including Mogadishu police chief Farhan Mohamud Adan and other security officials, according to those sources and a report by U.S Congress-funded Voice of America.

SJS reported that an improvised explosive device killed Ahmed and the security officials and that the journalist was embedded with the security forces; the Voice of America report said it was a landmine, targeting Farhan. CPJ was unable to verify the type of device used. 

Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for the media. At least 71 one other journalists have been killed in connection to their work since 1992, according to CPJ research.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“Mohamed Abdi Ilig and Abdijabar Mohamed Hussein should never have been arrested for simply covering a breaking news story in real time, and we are deeply disappointed by the convictions and harsh sentences handed down to them,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator. “Appealing these spurious convictions through Somaliland’s flawed justice system would be unjust, lengthy, and uncertain. Time is of the essence for these two innocent journalists, one of whom is seriously ill. Authorities must not further undermine Somaliland’s already precarious press freedom environment and should ensure the release of the journalists immediately, without condition.”

Mohamed, a reporter and chairperson of MM Somali TV, Abdirahman Ali Khalif, a reporter for Gobonimo TV, and Abdijabar, a reporter for Horn Cable TV, were among 18 journalists arrested on April 13 in connection to their coverage of a fight between inmates and guards at the Hargeisa Central Prison in the region’s capital, as CPJ documented at the time. The majority of the journalists were eventually released, according to a statement by the Mogadishu-based press rights organization, the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS). Mohamed is seriously ill and his condition worsened while in jail, according to Yasmin Omar Mohamoud, chair of the local advocacy group Human Rights Centre Somaliland, CPJ was not able to obtain details of his medical condition.

Mohamed, Abdijabar, and Abdirahman were charged under Articles 215 and 328 of the penal code relating to “subversive or anti-national propaganda” or publishing false news, according to Human Rights Centre Somaliland and a joint statement by SJS and the Somali Media Association (SOMA). The pair were sentenced in a “hasty” hearing that took place “without the knowledge of the defense lawyers and family members of the defendants,” according to the joint SJS and SOMA statement. The court acquitted Abdirahman.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On the afternoon of Wednesday, April 13, security personnel — including police and intelligence officers — arrested a group of at least nine journalists, working for seven local private media outlets and two international outlets, who were covering a fight between inmates and guards at a prison in the region’s capital, Hargeisa, according to multiple media reports and statements by press rights groups. Two of the detained journalists were released after a few hours in custody, according to the press rights groups and a statement by the Human Rights Center, an advocacy group.

Later that day, security personnel raided the Horn Cable TV offices, which was one of the stations that aired breaking news dispatches from the scene of the prison fight, and arrested another six journalists, according to statements made at a news conference by Sakaria Muhumed Ahmed, the chairperson of the Somaliland Journalists Association, a local media industry body; a joint statement by the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) and the Somali Media Association, Mogadishu-based press rights organizations; and Abdikarim Saed Salah, a Horn Cable TV journalist who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. Abdikarim said that the men who raided the station were police officers.

The detained journalists’ colleagues said that none of them had been produced in court. CPJ was unable to independently verify the whereabouts of the 13 journalists who remain behind bars or what allegations police have leveled against them.

“These sweeping arrests expose the intolerance for independent reporting that has made Somaliland a hostile environment for members of the press,” said CPJ’s sub-Saharan African representative Muthoki Mumo. “Authorities must release all journalists detained for their work, allow them to go back to their jobs without interference, and ensure that security personnel no longer harass or detain journalists for doing their jobs.”

At a news conference, shared online by state media, Justice Minister Saleban Warsame Guled accused journalists of rushing to the scene to “report unconfirmed news.” At that same press conference, Ahmed Awale Yusuf, the head of Somaliland’s Custodial Corps, which is in charge of guarding the prison, vowed to file a case against “those who exaggerated the incident” for “damaging the moral of the soldiers and lying.”  

According to media reports, including by some the journalists’ employers; the statements; and the colleagues who spoke to CPJ, the nine journalists detained near the prison were:

• Naima Abdi Ahmed, founder of Carro Edeg Media
• Hassan Galaydh, a BBC correspondent
• Sagal Mustafe Hassan, a stringer for U.S. Congress-funded Voice of America (VOA)
• Mohamed Abdi Ilig, a reporter and chairperson of MM Somali TV
• Mohamed Jamal Jirde, a cameraperson with MM Somali TV
• Aidarus Mohamed, a reporter and regional bureau chief with the Mogadishu-headquartered Goobjoog Media Group
• Ahmed Nur Samrawi, a Bulsho TV reporter
• Ahmed Said Hassan Shimali, a Horn Cable TV reporter
• Ahmed Mohamud Yusuf, a Saab TV camera operator

Police and intelligence officers at the scene also tried to arrest another journalist, CBA TV reporter and manager Hamza Hirsi Hayd, but he was allowed to go free after the officers argued and failed to agree about whether he should be taken into custody, according to the journalist, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, and another person familiar with his case who requested anonymity for safety concerns.

Sagal and Naima were released after about three to four hours in custody, according to the same sources, a VOA statement shared with CPJ via email, and Naima, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. VOA said that authorities did not provide a reason for Sagal’s arrest.

Naima told CPJ she was held at the intelligence headquarters, where officers searched her phone and accused her of undermining national security and recording “sensitive matters.” She said that the officers beat and kicked her, including hitting her in the face. She said she suffered aches all over her body and on one of her hands, that eight of her teeth in “fragile condition,” and that she visited a local dentist who gave her painkillers.

After raiding the Horn Cable TV offices, security personnel arrested reporters Abdijabar Mohamed Hussein, Mohamed Suldan Ahmed, and Khalid Mohamed Aleeli, as well as camera operators Ayanle Abdi Buni, Mustafa Muhumed Abdi, and Abdifatah Mohamud Ismail, according to Abdikarim. Sakaria, at the April 13 press conference, said that security personnel also confiscated two cameras.

During the April 13 press conference, Sakaria said five journalists were held at the Hargeisa Central Police station while the whereabouts of the rest were unclear. The SJS reported that seven of the journalists were held at the intelligence headquarters while the rest were held at the central police station in Hargeisa, a report corroborated by Abdikarim and Abdishakur Dayib Mohamed, director of MM Somali TV, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

Bulsho TV director Ali Farah Hardi and Goobjoog Media’s deputy director Abdiaziz Ahmed Gurbiye told CPJ via messaging app that they were unsure where the journalists from their stations are detained.

CPJ’s calls and messages to Somaliland Police Commissioner General Mohamed Adan Saqadhi, Intelligence Chief Mohamed Salebaan Hasan, and Justice Minister Salebaan Warsame Guleed were not answered. CPJ could not immediately find contact information for the prison security head Ahmed Awale Yusuf. CPJ sent queries for comment via Facebook and Twitter to Somaliland’s ministries of justice, information, and foreign affairs but did not receive a response. A query sent via Twitter to the office of the Somaliland president was also unanswered.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.