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Members of the Sufi group, Ahlu Sunna Waljama (ASWJ), shut down Radio Dhusamareb of central Somalia on Wednesday evening. Seven masked intruders forced staff to evacuate the building and the station’s editor was arrested and taken into custody. He has now been released without charge. Less than 24 hours before the attack, Al Shabaab militants silenced the Voice of Hiran radio station in the town of Beletweyne.
The editor of Waheen daily newspaper has been sentenced to three years in prison on charges of defamation and spreading false news. Mohamud Abdi Jama will also have to pay a US$900 fine, the charges stem from an article in which he accused a police chief, and a director of Somaliland Electric Agency of nepotism.
Two independent radio stations were attacked by Islamist militia in Mogadishu on 19 September. Radio Horn Afrik was vandalised and looted by Al-Shabaab, while Global Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) was taken over by Hizbul Islam, who are now using the station to broadcast their own propaganda. Journalists at Horn Afrik were driven from the building by armed men. Cassettes and CDs were then destroyed. According to the transitional government in Mogadishu, five radio stations in the city have now been attacked or forcibly taken over by Islamist rebels.
Following the news that a journalist was jailed for six years for broadcasting an interview with a Islamist rebel chief, the authorities in the semi-autonomous state of Puntland have officially banned all journalists from interviewing rebels in the area.