Muzzling the Somali Media by Stealth

[Deeq A.]

COMMENTARY.

Mogadishu  — Somali journalists face threats from different directions. Al-shabaab operatives target journalists who do refer to the group as a terrorist organisation. The Federal Government and some Federal Member States practise a zero-tolerance media outlets of journalists who are critical of policies or publish articles or opinion pieces that show authorities in bad light.

Abdinur Mohamed, Director of Communications at the Somali Presidency, has some ideas to improve the state of the media in Somalia. At an event to launch the Government Public Relations Office  and  the Press Law Abdinur castigated the freedom” that Somali journalists enjoy. “In Mogadishu there is limitless freedom of the press. There are many radio stations in Mogadishu. Some media outlets have the freedom to support foreign countries against the Somali national interest. This type of freedom of the press must be regulated” Abdinur said.

Abdinur: There is limitless freedom of press in Somalia.

Tolerance might have had its dictionary definition changed if a government that sends a journalist to jail for “slander” can be tolerant of journalists “working in cahoots with foreign countries”. The moralistic attitude of a senior Villa Somalia official towards the media gives away the intention of the Presidency to bully the media into becoming the unofficial mouth-piece of the Federal Government of Somalia.

Too many radio stations in Mogadishu or other parts of Somalia are not a sign of freedom of the press. Media houses started life as “the voice of clans” after 1991. During the first half of 1990s Mogadishu-based journalists launched cyclostyled daily newspapers such as Midnimo and Shabelle Pres. Dalka, launched in 1991 by the Ministry of Information and printed at the former State Printing Agency, ceased publication, only to be re-launched in a different format a few years ago.

A government that controls the media directly or indirectly cannot and will not be able to promote freedom of press. Neither the cavalry manner in which some Somali journalists report on politics nor the control freakery of the Federal Government of Somalia when it comes to media relations forebodes a better journalism era in Somalia. Journalists working  for private radio stations and television networks have the wealth of experience to learn from past mistakes instead of looking up to the government as a purveyor of journalism ethics.

The sarcasm in the statement of the Villa Somalia Communications Director is a wake-up call for Somali journalists who have to be on the guard against granting Villa Somalia or any other authority the privilege to label Somali journalists from expediently high moralistic pedestal.

  By Hassan Mire Dahir (Hassaney)

Ideas expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect the position of Puntland Post. 

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