The Somali government today relaxed a ban on four major media outlets it had closed, accusing them of biased coverage during the Horn of Africa nation’s recent war, media owners said. Officials complained the outlets - including two of Somalia’s largest independent broadcasters and the local office of Al Jazeera TV - aired unconfirmed reports and leaned towards Islamists ousted at the New Year by an Ethiopian-led offensive. But yesterday’s closures brought the government a blaze of unwelcome publicity and protests from both local and foreign media watchdogs, who said it was an affront to democracy.
Media executives emerged from a lengthy meeting with government officials on Tuesday to announce they were going back on the air. “The government reversed the ban,” Ali Iman Sharmarke, co-owner of HornAfrik broadcaster, told Reuters. “The international media and international organisations, especially the ones who work to protect the media, played a major role in the lifting of this ban.”
The 24-hour closure of the outlets came as martial law was declared across Somalia weeks after an Ethiopian-led military offensive ousted Islamists in the south. ”Shutting down private media houses is the worst way to reconcile the Somali people and to bring the country out of these long periods of chaos,” said Gabriel Baglo, Africa office director of the International Federation of Journalists. ”We condemn this unacceptable violation of press freedom,” he added, speaking before the ban was lifted.
The radio stations of HornAfrik and another major independent broadcaster, Shabelle Media Network, could be heard soon after the media executives met government security officials, a Reuters correspondent in Mogadishu confirmed. As well Al Jazeera TV, the other broadcaster affected was the Koranic radio station IQK. All deny having favoured the Islamists.
(Source: Reuters/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)