Radio Horyaal Continues To Broadcast Despite Threats And Intimidation

[Siciid1986]

London, UK, July 25, 2009 – President Rayale has been left isolated as domestic and international condemnation and pressure mounts on his regime over the continued detention without trial of two Radio Horyaal reporters and the closure of local television station, Horn Cable TV (HCTV).

The two radio journalists, director of Radio Horyaal, Mohamed Osman Mire and news editor Ahmed Saleban Dhuhul have been refused bail and are still being held in a cell at the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for the second week running. The two were arrested on the direct order of Somaliland president, Dahir Rayale Kahin, for allegedly broadcasting ‘false information’ inciting violence between the president’s clan and another clan that led to the death of four people.

In the meantime, the Attorney General shut down HCTV for airing footage of the same news.

“It is a shameless regime manned by shameless individuals who have no moral compass. The detention of these journalists simply suggests that Rayale is a law unto himself and no longer needs a court’s permission to throw journalists into jail,” said Mohammed Yonis Awale, the chairman of the independent Radio Horyaal Committee.

According to a statement issued by the US Embassy in Nairobi, the US government condemned the recent arrests and called for the immediate release of the journalists while urging at the same time that Horn Cable TV be allowed to resume broadcasting without impediment during this important, pre-election period.

In a July 17 statement, the Paris-based media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders was outraged by the arrest of the two journalists and the closure of HCTV station in Somaliland and called for “the international community should help Somali journalists, who are exposed to enormous risks.”

The Vienna-based International Press Institute and The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) also condemned the arrests not to mention the tidal wave of condemnations from the Somaliland Diaspora.

Radio Horyaal had an interview on Wednesday with one of the elders who attended a meeting with president Rayale on the El-Bardaleh issue, featuring even more embarrassing revelations about the president’s failure to act upon the ruling of the House of Elders’ subcommittee.

President Rayale dismissed the subcommittee’s ruling as outrageous and branded members of House of Elders “enemies”, according to Mohamoud Jibril Kahin who was one of the elders who attended the meeting with the President.

President Rayale received various peace envoys and delegation of heavyweight elders from the other clan that hail from Gabiley, alerting him to the gravity of the situation and the urgent need to find a solution to the simmering confrontation over the disputed territory and properties.

The elders of Gabiley were reportedly angry that a June ruling made by the Upper House of the Parliament, giving their clan certain land and property rights, had not yet been implemented by the President.

It also emerged that long before the deadly plot was hatched from the shadows of El-Baradaleh the president was receiving a constant stream of information and intelligence reports from area and knew pretty well in advance that the situation became a tinderbox waiting to explode any moment. However, the president who found the ruling of the Upper House of the Parliament unfavorable to his clan chose to bury his head in the sand, hoping somehow that the problem will disappear and evaporate.

Some analysts believe that Radio Horyaal and HCTV have been convenient scapegoat for the president’s failure to take the bull by the horns.

Disseminating of propaganda against the state, incitement of violence and confusing the public opinion are routine accusations by the authorities of Somaliland to justify the closure of newspapers and TVs and detention of journalists who are not toeing the line regarding the government’s policies.

Source: The Somaliland Globe