Somalia: is Shabelle Media Network losing its independence like Horn Afrik?

[NASSIR]

I will give the author the benefit of the doubt for enlisting a number of injustices and favoratism the defeated ICU did for the Shabelle Media Network as well its consistent false report on downplaying the adminstrative gains of the TFG and AU Troops, including Ethiopia.

 

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Is Shabelle Media Network losing its independence like Horn Afrik?

 

Source: African path

 

August 19, 2007

 

Along with a couple of other Somali media outlets, Shabelle Media Network (SMN) often prides itself as a rare independent media organization. But if it wasn’t already a partisan entity in the eyes of critics, recently, SMN appears to have transformed itself away from its already negligible independent attributes.

 

Under the 1969-91 Siad Barre government, there was just one daily newspaper called Xiddigta Oktobaar in Somalia. There was a strict government control and the news was mainly supplied by the Somali National News Agency (SONNA) or the government’s information Ministry press service. After the fall of Siad Barre, it was the period of warlord radios, with each group keeping its supporters and clan/sub-clan aware of current events, often twisted for propaganda purposes. But with the launching of HornAfrik and SMN a few years ago, Somalia started to have an occasionally independent and a more organized media similar to what BBC Somalia was originally trying to be. No one knew if these new media outlets had their own agenda or if their rise corresponded to the rise of the Islamic Courts Union.

 

 

 

Since and After the Islamic Courts Union

 

The coming of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) to Mogadeshu meant that media censorship was not only about political and clan views but also based on “morality” measurements. A good example was the closing of Radio Jowhar, which was accused by the ICU for playing “love songs” and “immoral music.” Especially since the people of Somalia, which include millions living in neighboring secular nations and around 200,000 living in western secular nations, saw ICU’s Wahabism and radical views as being foreign, the censorship became a sign of more dangerous problems to come under the ICU. Various restrictions were detected by western media watch dogs. Still foreign or western media watchdogs were & are not always correct since they often referee media status from a thousand miles away and don’t incorporate the responsibility of media outlets to avoid inciting violence – as was the case with most media outlets the last two decades – into their assessments. No matter, what made the censorship by the ICU (a mainly Habr Gidir ****** clan organization) very unique was that it would repress views represented even by ****** clan journalists who dared to question its authority. The Arab Wahabism nature of the ICU might relate with the immorality filtering of the media but, in regards to ideology, the foreign nature of the ICU might also have a lot to do with such unique developments of ICU’s censorship prerequisites.

 

 

Additional media closures under the ICU included the imprisonment of National Union of Somali Journalist figures as well as the closure of East Africa Radio in Mogadishu. However, the relationship between the ICU and Shabelle Media Network was different. Both the lack of reports on these ICU censorships by the Shabelle Media Network journalists and also the tendency of the ICU to give Shabelle Media Network more space than other media outlets appeared to reflect their ideological harmony rather than ICU’s love for selective free press. All of this harmony between Shabelle Media Network and the ICU happened even when the NUSOJ declared that the year 2006, under ICU rule, was the “worst year for press freedom for more than a decade.”

 

 

After the ICU was defeated by the Somalia government, this transitional government has been accusing Shabelle Media Network (SMN) for misquoting, for overstating violence, for understating progress, for using one or bias sources as well as for making up stories. Early in 2007, relating TFG’s rule with an arrival of disaster and relating ICU’s exit with an exit of total peace & freedom appeared like the general aim of Shabelle Media Network. Also demonizing the Somali troops and their Ethiopian allies was normal as the often hard to disprove cases of women raping and robbing were frequently told and re-told by Shabelle Media Network. Thus, just like the Somali government, the Reporters sans frontiers (RSF) also started to blame some of the media outlets for inciting violence and concluded that “disinformation and lies were a major weapon” in the fighting between the Islamic Courts Union and the transitional government.

 

 

Shabelle Media Network continued to exaggerate news by blaming only the Somali government for the death of civilians. Sometimes it would claim that Ethiopian troops are targeting civilians and “spraying” bullets on civilians. It also seemed to have the most contact with the ICU leadership as its interviews and quotes from direct conversation with ICU continued.

 

Recently, even though the Eritrean government claims that it is not involved in Somalia, the Eritrean information minister appeared like an expert on Somalia’s current affairs. He was quoted by Shabelle Media Network of accusing Ethiopian and Somalia government for allegedly stealing millions of U.S. dollars in Mogadishu. This is of course propaganda but according to Shabelle Media Network August 18 report, the stolen money even went to the wife of Ethiopian prime minister who is named as "Alya Kola." Ironically the name of the Ethiopian Prime Minister’s wife is Azeb Mesfin, not Alya Kola. So, was all of this reporting fabricated by Shabelle Media Network in the first place? It is very unlikely that the Eritrean government would forget the name of Prime Minister Zenawi’s wife. In addition, Shabelle Media Network seems to mirror the deep anger of the ICU after the international media reported that the United States is planning to sanction and label Eritrea (the financer & home of ICU) as “State Sponsor of Terrorism.”

 

 

No one knows fully why the Shabelle Media Network, just like Horn Afrik, is becoming overtly partisan, losing its independence or trying to oppose the Somalia transitional government. Yet there is a widespread belief that its relationship with the ICU might be one of the reasons for this problem. Shabelle Media Network is also owned by Somalis from the Habr Gidir *** sub clan. Just like Horn Afrik, Shabelle Media Network was started and financed by entrepreneurs from the *** sub clan. This sub clan is part of the general ****** clan. And as reported by many sources, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) is controlled and run by politicians from the Habr Gidir *** sub clan.

 

 

Bahailu Damte

 

African Path

[Juje]

Very unfortunate indeed where some have to resort to the scums of this earth to bring forward their stance:

 

Who is Bahailu Damte: Behailu is an Oromo Ethiopian living in the US. He was born in 1965 in Adama City, within Oromia State of Ethiopia. He graduated from Addis Ababa University after majoring in English. He has interests in a small restaurant in Washington DC where he lives with his family. He is a proud father of two children.

 

And the following is few quotes from responses of his peers in comments he makes:

Who is Berhanu Damte? another apologist for the regime? Why is he attacking the messenger? where did the UN condomned New York Times? The reporter has visited ****** and knows the facts first hand. Berhanu Damte is in DC and telling us New York Times is wrong.

what is your name? Behailu.

This is a completely one-sided trash that I regretted taking my good time reading the article. You should be open enough to state that aid agencies have fears of straining their relations with governments if they expose governments interferences and related matters.... How many people have been and are being killed in the name of OLF, CUD, ONLF, and many more oppositions, many as human right activists, and journalists and anything and anyone who tries to practice their God-given rights! We are FED UP, BORED of bad governance and false arguments as this one.

Behailu Damte

What is your writing about, are you a vanguard to the inhuman woyane government? You are trying to pass a deceiving message to the public. Your comment on Jeffery Gentleman lacks substance. Your way to convince the public is appreciated but it lacks facts and truths to attract your readers. First of all the journalist was on the place where the merciless tragedy was taking place. That is his initial point to report the truth. How could you say that the journalist is a propagandist? Do you mean he is working to make happy the ONLF... If you recognize have a normal thinking power, this time internally and externally woyane is in real trouble. The land where he stands is a loose surface. It is like a land susceptible to a land slide that will broken down any time and let the woynae burry beneath it. If you have done any blunder then be ready to accompany your cruel comrades.

Shame to you!

And there is many more. Hence someone with a Somali flag avatar to refer to such a trash ( Berhanu Damte ) is actually very unfortunate.But then again that is how low people will reach to sell their dignity.

 

And sxb, re-read your thread before you irk the 'golden-rules' of SOL.

[NASSIR]

Again, if you disagree with the content of his article, I would expect you to do us a much-needed favor and present us something that corraborates that SMN is a nonpartisan Somali press, aside from what is mainly accused of.(Do not character-assasinate the author but his message)

 

Don't bring here your false nationalistic fervor under the smokescreen of religion.

 

Shebelle media supported the Islamic courts in big bias terms. It is one among several media heavily financed by the Islamists to promote its motto of setting up an Islamic state of Taliban style.

 

It hardly wrote articles on the illegal occupation of lower Shabelle region, long ruled with martial law by the warlord IndhaAde. It even called him a Saint or Sheikh blessed to rule above Allah's law. His ruling claimed unverified thousands of civilians, oppressed and maimed them so that he could continue milking the cow.

Below is the U.N report of IndhaADe. It is now his scattered clan militiamen who are causing the mayhem in the city.

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82. Indohaadde collects revenue from NGOs that want to operate in the area under his control; they must obtain Indohaadde's permission and must pay him a sum of money to conduct their activities. He receives at least 15 per cent of any NGO benefits that are offered to the local population. The fees paid by an NGO for the buildings they use are split between the owner and Indohaadde. He has a say in the question of which Somalis work for NGOs” members of his own clan” and gets part of an employee's salary. He also has a network of people that monitor the activities of NGOs to ensure their compliance with his financial interests. If an NGO does not comply with his requirements, he forces it to leave his area.

 

83. Indohaadde also owns drug farms in the area under his control, including at Janaale, Shalambood, Qoryooley, Buulamarer and Kurtun Waarey; the exact number of farms is unknown, but Monitoring Group sources estimated that as many as 10 may be spread throughout his area. He is alleged to be dealing in marijuana (probably in the form of hashish).

 

84. Indohaadde's drug farms are a sophisticated operation involving irrigation

systems, fertilizers and herbicides. The workers on the farms are experienced in the drug-growing business and receive a good salary to maintain the high quality of the drugs. The drugs undergo a drying process and are packaged and concealed to avoid attracting attention. The product is graded: poorer-quality product is sent to Mogadishu and neighbouring countries for local consumption, while the higher quality product is put into trucks and transported to airstrips or the Marka seaport for further transport to the international market.

 

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Tell me if you want that old status quo of anarchy and fiedoms to return and remain forever. These episodes ring in our own ears the same way when the megalomanic Aideed fought against the U.N peacekeeping force. He used to get his main support from narrow-minded persons with strangling chain dangling on their necks.

[Juje]

Saxiib, may be there is a slightly valid points in your stance aginst SMN, and I dont dispute that neither do I intend. Simply for the reason you are independent to hold such views. But what is alarmingly questionative is the fact you use as resources for back-up an articule written by a coward, scumbag, dirty scounderel and a charecter who deserves no respect from his peers let alone us, Bahailu Damte .

SMN is at first used as a reference by Interational Media in matters concerning Somalia, and am sure your opposition is narrowed down to the fact of clan hatred, which a common syndrome in and around you. But that is beside the point - but why sxb, and why do you refer to an article written by Xabashi dirt who blindly supports the Zenawi regime. Why couldnt you just come up with your own article listing the misgivings of SMN, am sure it would have had more respect.

But Bahailu Damte damn , I guess you share with him his loyalty to Zenawi.

uuuuufffff.!!!

You stooped low - 'wa baahanahey baqtiga loma cuno'.