SOMALIA: Detained journalists released in Puntland

25 May 2005

NAIROBI, 25 May (IRIN) - Two journalists arrested by the authorities in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, in northeastern Somalia, have been released, a local journalist told IRIN on Wednesday.

On Tuesday evening, Moulid Haji Abdi and Mahmud Abdirahman Rod, director and programme manager of the Somali Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) radio in Bosaso, were "picked up by officers of the Puntland Intelligence Service (PIS)" said Muhammad Said Kashawito, of the Bosaso-based Midnimo radio station.

The journalists were reportedly released on Wednesday without being charged. "I have spoken with Moulid, and they are both out," said Kashawito. He explained that the two were arrested in connection with a story about economic difficulties faced by the people of Qardo town, that was broadcast by SBC on Tuesday morning.

Kashawito told IRIN that the two journalists were released after intervention of the region's president, Gen Adde Muse Hirsi.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) recently expressed concern over what it said were attacks on the freedom of the press in Puntland.

Reporters there, the committee added, had been arrested, and radio stations threatened with censorship.

In a letter dated 3 May to the president of Puntland, CPJ said that two journalists from the weekly newspaper Shacab (Voice of the People), in Garowe, the regional capital, were arrested in April and there were threats to close the newspaper.