{"id":2501,"date":"2022-07-06T16:46:04","date_gmt":"2022-07-06T16:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onkodradio.staging.ileysinc.com\/en\/?p=2501"},"modified":"2022-08-10T10:25:39","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T10:25:39","slug":"somalia-south-west-state-detains-tv-journalist-jubbaland-restricts-independent-media-covering-the-state-assembly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onkodradio.staging.ileysinc.com\/en\/somalia-south-west-state-detains-tv-journalist-jubbaland-restricts-independent-media-covering-the-state-assembly\/","title":{"rendered":"Somalia: South West State detains TV journalist, Jubbaland restricts independent media covering the state assembly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Mogadishu (Onkod Radio)\u2014<\/strong>\u00a0Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) and the Somali Media Association (SOMA) condemns the arbitrary detention against RTN television reporter, Mohamed Abdirahin Mohamed, who is a member of SJS human rights journalists network, by South West State police in Baidoa, on Tuesday and the restrictions against journalists covering Jubbaland State Assembly sitting in Kismayo on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Around 5:00pm on Tuesday, Baidoa police officers detained journalist Mohamed Abdirahin Mohamed from Baidoa city centre following his interview with an opposition member of the South West State Assembly. The lawmaker, among six others, protested against the revocation of their immunity and membership in the state assembly. According to the journalist, armed police officers\u2014 acting on the orders of the Baidoa police commissioner, lieutenant colonel Mukhtar Mohamed Dugudow \u2014 were following him when he left the hotel and later detained him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was held at the main police station where I stayed during the night. The confiscated my phone and nobody informed me why I was arrested. There are no charges presented against me until now,\u201d Mohamed said.<\/p>\n<p>The journalist was freed on Wednesday morning on a condition that he will not publish the interview he conducted with the lawmaker and that he will refrain from any critical coverage on president Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed (Laftagareen).<\/p>\n<p>When contacted, the Baidoa police commissioner, lieutenant colonel Dugudow and Bay Regional Police Commissioner, Amin Mad-Darur did not respond.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, Jubbaland president\u2019s office banned independent media from covering the opening session of the fourth sitting of the Jubbaland Assembly in Kismayo where president Ahmed Mohamed Islam (Madobe) was addressing the regional lawmakers. Journalists told SJS and SOMA that the orders to ban the media was given by the president\u2019s communications director.<\/p>\n<p>SJS and SOMA call for authorities in Southwest State to uphold their international legal obligations and immediately put an end to arbitrary detention against journalists covering the opposition lawmakers ahead of the regional elections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe condemn the arbitrary detention of our colleague Mohamed Abdirahin Mohamed, who is a member of our human rights journalists network. We are glad that he got his freedom now. Unlawful arrests of journalists must stop, and authorities must accept criticism and complaints raised against them,\u201d Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, the Secretary-General of SJS said. \u201cWe also condemn the restrictions against the independent journalists in Kismayo today. A free press contributes to making the public aware of the activities of the government system including the parliament so that they can monitor and hold their representatives accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe strongly condemn the yesterday\u2019s arrest of journalist Mohamed Abdirahin Mohamed in Baidoa, and the blockage against the independent journalists in Jubbaland today. We call on the authorities in South West and Jubbaland to allow press freedom and stop threatening journalists,\u201d Mohamed Osman Makaran, the Secretary-General of SOMA said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mogadishu (Onkod Radio)&mdash;&nbsp;Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) and the Somali Media Association (SOMA) condemns the arbitrary detention against RTN television reporter, Mohamed Abdirahin Mohamed, who is a member of SJS human rights journalists network, by South West State police in Baidoa, on Tuesday and the restrictions against journalists covering Jubbaland State Assembly sitting in Kismayo on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/onkodradio.staging.ileysinc.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Mohamed-Abdirahin-Mohamed.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onkodradio.staging.ileysinc.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onkodradio.staging.ileysinc.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onkodradio.staging.ileysinc.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onkodradio.staging.ileysinc.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onkodradio.staging.ileysinc.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onkodradio.staging.ileysinc.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onkodradio.staging.ileysinc.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onkodradio.staging.ileysinc.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onkodradio.staging.ileysinc.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onkodradio.staging.ileysinc.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}