SOMALIA: Privately-owned radio and TV station shut down
Reporters Without Borders protested today against the shutting down of the privately-owned Somali Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) by the authorities of the Somali region of Puntland and called for the measure to be reversed at once.
Subject: SOMALIA / PUNTLAND - Privately-owned radio and TV station shut down
Date: Monday, May 27, 2002 11:50 AM
The French version follows. La version française suit.
Press freedom
27 May 2002
SOMALIA / PUNTLAND
Privately-owned radio and TV station shut down
Reporters Without Borders protested today against the shutting down of the
privately-owned Somali Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) by the authorities of
the
Somali region of Puntland and called for the measure to be reversed at once.
"This is a serious blow to media diversity in the region and is not the
first
time press freedom has been threatened in Puntland, where three journalists
were
arrested last year," said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert
Ménard in a letter to Puntland President Col. Abdullahi Yusuf. He called on
him
to see that journalists could work freely and safely in the region.
SBC chief Ali Abdi Aware announced on 23 May that the station was going off
the
air, having received word from the authorities cancelling its broadcasting
licence and telling him to close the
station. An aide of the president said the station had a commercial licence
that
did not allow it to broadcast political material.
Local observers said SBC had been penalised because it had criticised Col.
Yusuf
and reported regularly on the activities of the party led by Jama Ali Jama,
a
former president of Puntland and political opponent of Col. Yusuf.
Puntland is in northeastern Somalia and has had an autonomous government
since
1998.