The government has released two journalists who had been jailed three months ago for reporting about unrest at a prison facility.
Mohamed Abdi Mohamed Ilig of MM Somali TV and Abdijabar Mohamed Hussein of HornCable TV were charged with “subversive propaganda” and spreading “false, exaggerated and tendentious information liable to disturb public order.”
The Somaliland authorities arrested a total of 15 journalists in a massive round up in Hargeisa on 13 April after they covered clashes between prisoners and guards in the city’s main prison. While most of them were released a few days later, the two were sent to jail.
There has been unrelenting pressure from civic bodies to have the two released and in the weekend, the government gave in to the pressure.
Ilig said their arrest was an affront to the freedom of expression and media freedom which is enshrined in the Somaliland constitution.
“I never thought I would be held on charges relating to harmful reporting to my country or dereliction of duties as a responsible journalist. It is an experience that I do not wholly regret now as I have come to know of so much happening inside the prison while I was in custody including the condition under which both short-time and long-term prisoners are held, overdue terms of release for some prisoners, and much more,” he said.
“Social inequities, injustice, nepotism, widespread corruption and so much more would have been openly practiced by people in responsible state positions if not for the lens and the pen of the vigilant journalist. We play a role that can neither be subdued nor downplayed,” he said.
Other journalists still detained by the Muse Bihi administration include Abdimalik Muse Coldon.
Authorities in Somaliland, in an unconstitutional move have been cracking down on journalists, arresting and torturing them for some time.
