What Press Freedom Looks Like in Somalia?

The media workers were threatened and intimidated at gunpoint, denied access to the information and sometimes their equipment was confiscated on daily incidences by Somali security forces in Mogadishu.

News Keydmedia Online
3 May 2021

MOGADISHU, Somalia - As the world marks World Press Freedom Day, Somali journalists still face fear and repression, a chilling effect on their journalistic work to inform the public about events in Somalia.

There has been an escalating crackdown on media freedom in the past four years with abundant harassment, intimidation, and arrest of independent journalists and media outlets across the country.

The media workers were threatened and intimidated at gunpoint, denied access to the information and sometimes their equipment was confiscated on daily incidences by Somali security forces in Mogadishu.

The Journalists across the long-chaotic Horn of Africa country observed World Press Freedom Day 2021 on the deterioration of press freedom that has been ongoing since Farmajo took office in February 2017.

It is not unusual for Somali journalists to be killed or end up in jail without crimes they committed but exercised their duties to report on corruption, power abuse, and nepotism within the government.

In the past four months, one journalist was killed, two have been wounded, 30 journalists were arrested and held for weeks without a court, three media houses have been raided by Somali security forces.

Journalists in Somalia still Face Persecution for Critical Reporting due to the lawlessness, the impunity, and lack of accountability that encouraged Somali authorities and non-state actors to harass the media.

While we celebrate World Press Freedom Day 2021, KEYDMEDIA calls on the international community to hold Farmajo accountable for the abuses against the media and the journalists who shouldn’t have to risk their lives to do their jobs.

Somalia is yet ranked as one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist as the media workers face threats from the government, NISA, armed private individuals, and Al-Shabaab group.

KEYDMEDIA English