Somali journo freed

2009-06-09 12:08

Nairobi - A Somali journalist kidnapped by gunmen a week ago was freed at the weekend, global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said on Monday.

Ibrahim Mohamed Ali, director of London-based private channel Universal TV, was kidnapped 13 kilometres (eight miles) west of Mogadishu, on June 2.

He was released on Sunday, according to the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Somali gunmen have kidnapped scores of foreign journalists and aid workers in recent months and most of the Somali journalists abducted had been fixers or translators for foreign reporters.

Director of Somalia's Shabelle radio network Mokhtar Mohamed Hirabe was gunned down in Mogadishu on Sunday, making him the fifth journalist killed this year in the lawless Horn of African nation.

Somalia is one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists. Media houses have been routinely shut down by the authorities and many reporters, Somali and foreign, have been kidnapped by armed groups.

Two freelance journalists, an Australian and a Canadian kidnapped near the capital some nine months ago, are still being held.

Somalia has lacked an effective central government since the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre plunged the country into vicious violence.

 

- AFP