RSF calls on Somalia’s new president to prioritise journalists’ safety
Reporters Without Borders urges newly elected Somalia President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to prioritize journalists’ safety due to past violence and oppression against media personnel. They call for immediate action, including stopping journalist arrests, releasing detained journalists, and repealing laws restricting press freedom.
Somalia’s new president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud must make journalists’ safety a priority in a country were political violence and corruption have long prevailed over press freedom, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
More than 30 journalists were killed during Mohamud’s first term, which was especially oppressive and violent for media personnel. His government was responsible for the draconian 2016 media law and worked to undermine media rights activists.
RSF calls on the newly elected president to lose no time in decreeing a moratorium on arrests of journalists, freeing detained journalists, and repealing legislation that restricts press freedom, including the 1964 penal code, which hampers the media’s pursuit of truth.