8 June 2005
REPORTER SHOT DEAD
In Somalia, a country which has had no effective central government since the fall of dictator Siad Barre in 1991, journalists face violence and lawlessness. On 5 June 2005, radio journalist Duniya Muhyadin Nur was shot and killed while covering a protest in Afgoye, 30 km from the capital, Mogadishu, reported the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF). She was the second journalist killed in Somalia this year.
Muhyadin, 26, died instantly when a gunman fired a single bullet at the back of her taxi. She was reporting on a protest by truck drivers who had blockaded the Mogadishu-Afgoye road to express anger over the proliferation of militia checkpoints in the country. Militia groups control more than 40 checkpoints in Somalia, which bring in US$40,000 every day from passing buses and trucks.
Muhyadin was a reporter for the Mogadishu-based radio station Capital Voice, owned by the HornAfrik media company. She hosted a call-in radio programme titled "Mogadishu Today", covering issues affecting minorities, women and children.
Last February, BBC producer Kate Peyton was shot to death outside a Mogadishu hotel where she had spoken to officials from Somalia's transitional government. Her killers are still at large.
Visit these links:
- CPJ:
http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Somalia06june05na.html
- RSF:
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=14015
- IFJ: http://www.ifj.org/default.asp?index=3165&Language=EN
- BBC In-Depth Profile of Somalia: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/africa/2004/somalia/default.stm
- IRIN News: http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=Horn_of_Africa&SelectCountry=Somalia
- HornAfrik:
http://www.hornafrik.com/
Read IFEX Members' Reports on Somalia:
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/attacks04/africa04/somalia.html
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=10200
- International Press Institute: http://www.freemedia.at/wpfr/Africa/somalia.htm
RSS