Somalia: Media watchdog demands release of detained journalist
NAIROBI, 4 August (IRIN) - The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded the unconditional release of a radio journalist arrested on Wednesday in the Somali town of Jowhar, the temporary seat of Somalia's transitional federal government.
"It's outrageous that Abdullahi Kulmiye Adow has been detained for doing his job," CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said in a statement. "We call on the Jowhar and transitional federal authorities to ensure that he is released immediately and unconditionally."
Adow, who works for the Mogadishu-based independent HornAfrik radio station, was reportedly arrested in Jowhar, 90 km north of Mogadishu, "at 1:00 am [2200 GMT] on Wednesday" by militiamen, Hassan Ade of HornAfrik told IRIN on Thursday.
The authorities in Jowhar have not disclosed reasons for the arrest and Adow has not been charged "as of now" said Ade.
Adow had on Tuesday filed a report that alleged that senior officials of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) where being housed in a school and that parents had demanded that the officials vacate the school before the beginning of a new term, according to Ade.
President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi have made Jowhar the temporary seat of the interim government arguing that the Somali capital, Mogadishu, lacked security.
An estimated 100 members of the transitional parliament and other government officials - led by the speaker of parliament Sharif Hassan Shaykh Aden - have chosen to operate from Mogadishu.
In May, another HornAfrik journalist, Abdallah Nurdin Ahmad, was shot and wounded by an unknown gunman.
Somalia has had no effective central government since the overthrow of Barre's administration. Faction leaders and their militias took advantage of the ensuing anarchy to curve the country into fiefdoms over which they frequently fought.
The transitional government was set up in neighbouring Kenya in October 2004 following peace talks between various Somali clans and factions. The peace process was sponsored by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development.
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