Murders, Physical Assaults and Online Harassment: Silencing Journalism in Somalia
This annual report compiled and released by the Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ) is based on serious violations and abuses against journalists working in Somalia. In general, the trend of press freedom situation in the country between May 2020 and May 2021 has seen a dramatic deterioration, due to a spike in political violence precipitated by the collapse of election talks.
Somalia remains one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists. Political violence, terrorist attacks, corruption, brutal assaults, and harassment of media workers continue to throttle the practice of journalism. Numerous political, state, and non-state entities including the federal government, state authorities and the terror outfit Al Shabaab carry out violence, torture and arbitrary detention of journalists. During the period under review, journalists have been subjected to increased abuses, arbitrary arrests and more insidious intimidation tactics such the court martialing of critical voices.
The scale of violations and their frequency continue to remain unacceptably high. At-least 71 cases of attacks, beatings and violations against journalists and media workers were documented in Somalia, across all the states and regions. This translates to an overage of 6 cases of violations per month, or nearly two cases every week. The violations recorded include the murder of two journalists, 52 assault and injuries, six raids, attacks and closure of media outlets. 
Overall, the most dangerous state or region during the reporting period is Banadir. The region has registered over a third of violations against journalists. The state of Puntland is the second riskiest and most dangerous place to practice journalism in Somalia, with nearly 28% of recorded violation cases. TV journalists are the most targeted – TV medium workers have been accosted, arrested and beaten while filming or covering live event and official functions. The top three types of violations are physical beatings – 36%, arrests – 33%, threats and intimidation – 28%, and killings – 3%.
The data in the report, reveals that in spite of repeated pledges to protect media freedoms, Somali authorities in various states have been tightening the lid on media in the country, through numerous means of censorship including murders, threats, harassment aimed at defeating and silencing the practice of critical watchdog journalism in Somalia.
Our analysis also shows that no region, no town, no state in Somalia is safe for journalists – physical assaults, beatings, and arrests are common place everywhere. Somali leaders are growing confident each month in their aggressive arsenal to beat independent journalism into submission.
Two issues of huge concern to media right defenders, encountered during this reporting period: first, is the increasing length of arbitrary detentions, which are getting longer and longer – just to intimidate journalists, and secondly, more state authorities are subjecting critical journalists to military tribunals, disregarding the jurisdiction of civilian courts.
See full annual report
