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Authorities in Puntland, Somalia’s northeastern semi-autonomous region, released reporter Faysal Mohamed Hassan on Sunday. Mohamed, who wrote for the private news site Hiiraan Online, was serving a prison sentence over a story claiming that two murdered men belonged to Puntland’s security personnel. The journalist had begun serving his one-year sentence in the port city of Bossasso following his 2nd July conviction on charges of endangering state security and publishing a “false news report.”
Members of the Sufi group, Ahlu Sunna Waljama (ASWJ), shut down Radio Dhusamareb of central Somalia on Wednesday evening. Seven masked intruders forced staff to evacuate the building and the station’s editor was arrested and taken into custody. He has now been released without charge. Less than 24 hours before the attack, Al Shabaab militants silenced the Voice of Hiran radio station in the town of Beletweyne.
The editor of Waheen daily newspaper has been sentenced to three years in prison on charges of defamation and spreading false news. Mohamud Abdi Jama will also have to pay a US$900 fine, the charges stem from an article in which he accused a police chief, and a director of Somaliland Electric Agency of nepotism.
Two independent radio stations were attacked by Islamist militia in Mogadishu on 19 September. Radio Horn Afrik was vandalised and looted by Al-Shabaab, while Global Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) was taken over by Hizbul Islam, who are now using the station to broadcast their own propaganda. Journalists at Horn Afrik were driven from the building by armed men. Cassettes and CDs were then destroyed. According to the transitional government in Mogadishu, five radio stations in the city have now been attacked or forcibly taken over by Islamist rebels.