14 Mogadishu Radio Stations Stop Broadcasting Commercials, Entertainment

14 Mogadishu Radio Stations Stop Broadcasting Commercials, Entertainment

MOGADISHU, April 13, 2010/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- Mogadishu's fourteen private radio stations were today (Tuesday, 13 April 2010) forced to implement orders to stop playing commercials add entertainments, following the end of a ten-day ultimatum issued by the Hizbul Islam group to the radio stations.

According to the local Radio Stations, Hizbul Islam officials telephoned some of the stations to remind them of the deadline and warning them of dire consequence should they fail to comply. The stations are afraid of life-threatening retaliation acts by the group.

?Journalists working in these stations have in the past witnessed broad daylight assassination of their colleagues and have now been signalled that they would follow the same fate if they do not obey these oppressive orders,? said Omar Faruk Osman, Secretary-General of the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ).

All the affected stations are based in both areas controlled by Islamists and by Transitional Federal government.

?Mogadishu media has become a defenceless victim that is exposed to all sorts of oppression, abuse and brutality,? added Omar Faruk. ?But what is most disappointing is that those who claim friends of Somalia and Somalis have continued to watch from a distance at these horrific oppression, heinous crimes including the killing of journalists and the suppression of mankind without putting in any effort to restore law and sanity,? he added.

Source: National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ)

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