Two Radio Stations Taken Over By Militants

Two Radio Stations Taken Over By Militants

MOGADISHU, September 20, 2010/African Press Organization (APO)/ --

Al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam extremists on Sunday, 19 September 2010, forcibly looted two independent radio stations, HornAfrik and Global Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), in Mogadishu. The two Radio stations are an independent radio and televisions based in the capital.

Some of HornAfrik staff says armed militia from the Al-Shabaab broke into the premises of the radio station in Bakaro market of Mogadishu on Saturday evening, chased away journalists working in the station before destroying cassettes and CDs in the studios of the radio and its sister broadcasting house, Capital Voice.

Separately, heavily armed militia from the Hizbul Islam, another Islamist rebel group fighting against the Somali government and the African Union peace keepers in Mogadishu, on Saturday afternoon broke into the headquarters of GBC radio and television in Heliwa district in Mogadishu and taking it over.

The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has condemned the two attacks by the Al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam extremist groups. ?Taking over the ownership and control of independent radio stations by force and putting the owners and the journalists in a state of panic, risk and fear is a criminal act that cannot be condoned by anybody. This is unacceptable and amounts to the highest degree of media freedom violation,? said Omar Faruk Osman, NUSOJ secretary-general. ?After killing could silence journalists and private could not cease operations, this is the desperate and dangerous act to silence private media by militants?.

On 23 August 2010, the Al-Shabaab took over another radio station, Radio Holy Quran (IQK), a privately-owned broadcasting station based in north Mogadishu, after delivering a letter in which they explained their action to the management of the media house.

Source: National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ)

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