FESOJ condemns TV journalist detained over Facebook post in Somaliland
The Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ) condemns the arrest of an independent journalist in Somaliland and demands his immediate release.
On Monday, 8 June 2020, Somaliland Police arrested Ali Fahad Jama, a reporter with a local news television station, SAAB in connection with a post on his Facebook account about reports of car crash that involved a police vehicle that reportedly hit a civilian car before the driver sped off.
Somaliland police have dismissed the post as ‘false’ and accused the reporter of publishing ‘incorrect information’.
According to local journalists, Jama is being held at the Directorate of Criminal Investigation in Hargeisa, Somaliland’s capital since his arrest.
Keyse Ahmed Digale, the editor-in-chief of Saab TV for which the detained journalist works confirmed the arrest of their reporter Ali Fahad Jama to FESOJ by phone, saying that they were now trying to ensure the release of their reporter.
“We call on the Somaliland authorities release Ali Fahad Jama without delay and stop harassment and arrests of journalists,” Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu, FESOJ Secretary General said.
“This unwarranted detention of Ali Fahad Jama sends a signal to all journalists that they could be next for reporting incidents that could discourage them from pursuing information or visiting the scene where a crime or other newsworthy occurrence took place to report events that the public has a right to know — In another way, posting comments on social media sites by quoting a witness journalist at the scene is not crime.” Moalimuu said.
The arrest of the television reporter, the latest in series of arrests of journalists by Somaliland since last year comes one day after the release of Abdimalik Muse Oldon, an outspoken journalist and activist who spend for more than a year in jail.
On July 8, 2019, a court in in Hargeisa charged and found him guilty of ‘publications of anti-state false news’ and jailed him for three and half years .
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