Somalia must free rape journo – group
2013-01-28 10:24
Nairobi - Somalia must release a journalist held by police
for over two weeks after interviewing a woman who said she was raped by
government troops, a press freedom group said on Monday.
Freelance journalist Abdiaziz Abdinuur, who works for
several Somali radio stations as well as international media, was detained
without charge on 10 January in the capital Mogadishu, according to Somalia's
journalists' union.
"There is no legal basis for holding a journalist
simply for conducting an interview," the US-based Committee to Protect
Journalists (CPJ) wrote in an open letter on Monday to Somali President Hassan
Sheikh Mohamud, urging his release.
"This arrest sends a chilling message to the Somali
media to self-censor any critical coverage of security forces," the CPJ
letter added, noting that Abdinuur remains in jail with limited access to a
lawyer.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the CPJ last
week issued a joint statement in which they said the arrest was "linked to
increasing media attention given to the high levels of rape... including
attacks allegedly committed by security forces".
Somalia's journalists are reeling from a string of attacks,
with at least 18 media workers killed last year.
Mohamed Ibrahim, secretary general of the National Union of
Somali Journalists, has criticised the jailing of Abdinuur, saying reporters in
Somalia already "brave too many dangers".
Somalia, which has been ravaged by relentless conflict since
1991, chose a new government in September in a United Nations-backed process,
ending eight years of transitional rule by a corruption-riddled government.
It is hoped the new government will give the country its
first effective central government since the fall of president Mohamed Siad
Barre in 1991.
But it inherits a country racked by decades of war and an
insurgency by the al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab Islamists vowing to overthrow the
Western-backed administration.
