Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Somali govt, shuts down independent media

should this surprise anyone? how many times when the U.S. is involved, there is suppression of the media, that is of course unless it is the 'embedded puppets' ...

Somali government launches media crackdown
By Sahal Abdulle
January 15, 2007

MOGADISHU (Reuters) -
Somalia's government, with new emergency powers in hand to tame the chaotic country, ordered four major media outlets to shut on Monday as the president named a team to take charge of the capital. ... closure order by letter to HornAfrik Media, Shabelle Media Network, the Koranic radio station IQK and the local office of Al Jazeera television. ...

HornAfrik and Shabelle, among the country's biggest independent broadcasters, both confirmed they shut down as ordered. Qatar-based Al Jazeera said it had not been informed but saw no reason for such a move. ...

"Now that there is a government in place, they need to get a licence and avoid causing unrest by airing unconfirmed reports," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said. ... "If this is what state of emergency is meant, then it completely undermines the democratic values that the TFG (government) has been proclaiming," the National Union of Somali Journalists said in a statement.

Security reasons cited for the travel ban slapped on Mutairi; ‘Officials who arrested journalist will face action’
ArabTimes Jan 16

KUWAIT CITY:
A travel ban has been slapped on Mohammad Hayef Al-Mutairi, secretary-general of the Congregation of Invariable Values of the Nation for, what the relevant security authorities said, ‘security reasons’, reports Al-Seyassah daily. It has been reported Al-Mutairi was planning to leave for Iraq to hold a symposium in support of the Iraqi Sunnis in defiance of the Kuwaiti security authorities. ...

Police storm Sharqiya TV offices in Baghdad
Azzaman, January 2, 2007

Iraqi police forced their way into the closed offices of Sharqiya television following a government decision to shut down the station.

Sharqiya is the most widely viewed television in Iraq and until the government decision to have its offices closed it had access to terrestrial broadcasting inside the country. ...

The move is apparently part of a campaign Nouri al-Maliki’s government to wage a war on free media and particularly Sharqiya and its other sister media outlets like Azzaman newspaper, the country’s largest distribution daily. ...

The closure of the network’s offices is likely to curtail its comprehensive coverage of Iraq as Sharqiya had correspondents and cameras placed across the country.


Somali government launches media crackdownBy Sahal Abdulle
January 15, 2007

MOGADISHU (Reuters) -
Somalia's government, with new emergency powers in hand to tame the chaotic country, ordered four major media outlets to shut on Monday as the president named a team to take charge of the capital.

The interim government, weeks after arriving in Mogadishu on the heels of an Ethiopian-led offensive, is struggling to impose order and has seen forces backing it attacked repeatedly, most recently in a firefight late on Sunday.

The government's national security agency sent the closure order by letter to HornAfrik Media, Shabelle Media Network, the Koranic radio station IQK and the local office of Al Jazeera television.

"You should shut down upon receipt of this letter and appear at 10 a.m. on Tuesday at the office of national security," said the letter, signed by Col. Ahmed Hassan Ali and seen by Reuters.

Managers at HornAfrik and Shabelle, among the country's biggest independent broadcasters, both confirmed they shut down as ordered. Qatar-based Al Jazeera said it had not been informed but saw no reason for such a move.

IQK could not immediately be reached for comment.

"Now that there is a government in place, they need to get a licence and avoid causing unrest by airing unconfirmed reports," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said.

Dinari declined to say whether the move was carried out under sweeping emergency powers the parliament voted to give President Abdullahi Yusuf on Saturday.

"If this is what state of emergency is meant, then it completely undermines the democratic values that the TFG (government) has been proclaiming," the National Union of Somali Journalists said in a statement.

'CITY IN CHAOS'

The government is seeking to bring the Horn of Africa nation of 10 million under control after its soldiers with Ethiopian backing in late December routed Islamists who had taken over much of southern Somalia.

Ethiopia wants to withdraw its soldiers in the coming weeks but diplomats fear that would leave a security vacuum around the fledgling government, which is awaiting an African Union peacekeeping deployment as soon as it can be cobbled together.

President Thabo Mbeki said South Africa would consider sending troops to Somalia but military operations elsewhere may limit its ability to deploy soldiers.

"Yesterday again I met the foreign minister of Kenya who had been sent by the East Africa region ... They are requesting we should assist with the deployment of troops in Somalia. I did say to the minister we will look at the matter this week," Mbeki said in an interview on South African state television.

Somali Parliament Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, who MPs say is soon to be ousted for his close links to the Islamists, met EU Aid Commissioner Louis Michel in Brussels.

"I strongly express my legitimate concerns about the possible negative consequences of martial law ... on a credible reconciliation process," he told reporters afterwards.

Yusuf on Monday appointed a mayor and three other officials to administer the capital, which he himself came to last week for the first time since 1994 -- having steered clear during his more than two years in office because of poor security.

"We see the city is in chaos. It's not safe," he said.

Underscoring the challenge in a nation in anarchy since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was the latest battle between unidentified gunmen and allied Somali-Ethiopian troops.

The assault on an Ethiopian convoy came late on Sunday in Mogadishu's northern Arafat area where Ethiopian and government forces earlier seized guns, explosives and an armoured car.

A doctor at Madina hospital, who declined to be named, said eight people were wounded while a Somali government source said the 30-minute battle killed three Somalis.

"I saw an Ethiopian lorry being hit by an RPG and two Ethiopian bodies being loaded into another lorry," witness Dadir Abid told Reuters, adding he was not sure if the Ethiopians were dead or injured.

It was not clear who carried out the attack in a city where much of the population has guns, although suspicion will fall on Islamist remnants who have vowed guerrilla war, clan gunmen or former warlord militias who have moved back into Mogadishu.

(Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed and Farah Roble in Mogadishu, Mark John in Brussels and Sami Aboudi in Dubai)

Security reasons cited for the travel ban slapped on Mutairi; ‘Officials who arrested journalist will face action’
ArabTimes Jan 16

KUWAIT CITY:
A travel ban has been slapped on Mohammad Hayef Al-Mutairi, secretary-general of the Congregation of Invariable Values of the Nation for, what the relevant security authorities said, ‘security reasons’, reports Al-Seyassah daily. It has been reported Al-Mutairi was planning to leave for Iraq to hold a symposium in support of the Iraqi Sunnis in defiance of the Kuwaiti security authorities.In other news, the Interior Ministry has confirmed administrative action will be taken against responsible officials for arresting and humiliating journalist Ghanim Al-Sulaimani from the Al-Rai daily who had gone to the Diwaniya of Al-Mutairi in Firdous to cover the symposium. He was allegedly blindfolded and taken to the State Security police for interrogation.

Acting Director of Public Relations and Moral Guidance, Colonel Waleed Al-Ghanim acknowledged it was a ‘personal mistake’. He added the Ministry appreciates the role played by the press to keep the society informed about events taking place in the country. Earlier the Kuwait Society of Journalists and the Union of Journalists had expressed their regret at the incident and requested an apology from the Interior Ministry. The organizations also called upon the Ministry to undertake not to treat the press in such a manner in addition to taking stern action against those giving orders for arrest of the journalist.

Police storm Sharqiya TV offices in Baghdad
Azzaman, January 2, 2007

Iraqi police forced their way into the closed offices of Sharqiya television following a government decision to shut down the station.

Sharqiya is the most widely viewed television in Iraq and until the government decision to have its offices closed it had access to terrestrial broadcasting inside the country.

The breaking into the network’s offices in Baghdad came only two days after the execution of former leader Saddam Hussein.

The move is apparently part of a campaign Nouri al-Maliki’s government to wage a war on free media and particularly Sharqiya and its other sister media outlets like Azzaman newspaper, the country’s largest distribution daily.

Sharqiya sparked government’s fury when it documented how militias aligned to it were directly involved in the death squads that have been terrorizing the people of Baghdad.

The network produced evidence that the government itself was a culprit in the atrocities these squads were perpetrating.

The closure of the network’s offices is likely to curtail its comprehensive coverage of Iraq as Sharqiya had correspondents and cameras placed across the country.

But the decision is not going to silence the station as it broadcasts from outside the country.

A statement issued by the network said Sharqiya will continue “adherence to its national path which represents all Iraqis without exception and without exclusion.”

The statement described the network’s closure and the storming of its offices in Baghdad “as part of an organized campaign to prevent the flow of information and reject the other opinion.”

Sharqiya is also known among Iraqis for its philanthropic activities which include, among other things, assistance to vulnerable groups for treatment outside Iraq and help with housing and education.

The statement promised the beneficiaries that the network will honor all its commitments despite the closure of its offices in the country.


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