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January 15, 2008

Two Somalian journalists arrested in Mogadishu

By Julie Tomlin

The manager of privately-owned Somaliweyn Radio, and one of its journalists were arrested by government security forces yesterday in Mogadishu on 13 January.

According to Reporters Without Borders, a unit from the transitional federal government’s National Security Agency stormed into the studios of Radio Somaliweyn and arrested journalist Bashir Mohammed Abdulkadir. When the station’s manager Abdirahman Mohamed Hudeyfi later phoned the unit’s commander he was summoned to NSA headquarters where he was also arrested.

The media rights organisation says Somalia is the second most dangerous place for journalists after Iraq. Eight journalists were killed there in 2007. In a statement issued on 14 January it called on the international community to “ask the government to explain its abdication of responsibility in the face of repeated press freedom violations”.

Another journalist was shot in the face on 12 January as he left work, Reuters reports.

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