By Tamara Alfred
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa
Hassan Osman Abdi, 29, was shot outside his home in Mogadishu on Saturday and died on the way to the hospital. Abdi was the director of Shabelle Media Network and had done some freelance work for CNN, according to the National Union of Somali Journalist (NUSOJ) and Reporters Without Borders.
“This is a terrible tragedy, both for Hassan Osman Abdi’s family and for the Somali journalist community,” said Omar Faruk Osman, secretary general of the NUSOJ.
Abdi is the third Shabelle Media Network director to be murdered, said Reporters Without Borders. Shabelle Media Network director Bashir Nur Gedi was murdered in 2007, and his successor Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe was killed in 2009. Local journalists believe that Abdi was likely killed because of his role in reporting on politics and corruption cases.
Abdi’s colleagues and friends told the Associated Press they were too scared to attend his funeral because militants in Somalia have targeted such gatherings in the past.
Journalist Mohamed Bashir Hashi, 23, read a death threat sent to his mobile phone: “If God wills it, you will be the next apostate to be killed.”
“Deciding to stay here is so discouraging,” said Hashi. “We can’t even pay respects to our fallen colleague since al-Shabaab is threatening us.”
Somalia is the deadliest country in Africa for media personnel, and Mogadishu ranked as one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists in 2011, according to Reporters Without Borders. In 2009, the Committee to Protect Journalists ranked Somalia as the most dangerous for journalists when nine journalists were killed.
Abdi’s murder was the second targeted killing of a Somali journalist in less than two months. Abdisalan Sheik Hassan, a journalist with Horn Cable TV, was shot dead in December.
“We trusted the situation would improve but it’s getting worse now. Nowhere is safe,” said Mu’awiye Ahmed, a producer and photographer at Horn Cable TV. However, he vowed to continue working: “They can’t prevent me from my work.”
Amnesty International is urging the international community to call on the Somali authorities to bring to justice those responsible for the attacks on journalists. “The numerous attacks on journalists in Somalia have been part of an attempt to silence reporting about human rights abuses by all parties to the conflict in the country,” said Erwin van der Borght, Amnesty International’s Director for Africa.
A major international conference on Somalia will take place in London on February 23. Meanwhile, Somalia’s president strongly condemned the killing of a leading journalist as a “senseless murder,” suggesting that Al-Shabaab may have been responsible. In a statement, President Sharif Ahmed condemned and expressed grief and sorrow at the murder. He also urged the public to help the police investigate the killing.
“It has long been the strategy of groups like Al-Shabaab to target public figures in our society with the aim of spreading fear and panic,” said President Ahmed. “We will not be intimidated or threatened by such odious acts.”
Minister of Information Abdulkadir Hussein Mohamed Jaahweyne called the killing an “outrageous assassination.” He called Shabelle “one of the most important and pioneering media houses serving the country.”
Shabelle is one of Mogadishu’s most popular radio stations. It frequently reports on government corruption, abuses by al-Shabaab militants against civilians, and extortion by government troops.
Al-Shabaab appeared to claim responsibility for Abdi’s death, saying on its website that the killing would serve as a “lesson” to other journalists.
For more information, please see:
Amnesty International – Somalia: Journalist killing highlights need for international action on impunity – 30 January 2012
The Washington Post – Fear in Somalia’s journalist community after 2nd killing in less than 2 months – 30 January 2012
CNN – Somalia president decries journalist killing – 29 January 2012
