PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Sixth Somali journalist shot dead in Mogadishu
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Somali gunmen have killed yet another journalist in Mogadishu, attracting the condemnation of the UN Special envoy, Augustine Mahiga, who called for an end to the killings.
Shabelle Radio broadcaster, Ahmed Addow Anshuur, was gunned down and killed in Mogadishu on Thursday, making him the sixth journalist to be killed in Somalia this year.
Mahiga said he was dismayed to learn of the brutal murder of the Somali journalist in Mogadishu.
“It is well known that Somali journalists have the most difficult working conditions in the world. But that does not make it any easier to accept when one is brutally killed,” Mahiga said.
The UN envoy regretted that Anshuur was targeted in cold blood killing for carrying out his job as a professional journalist, an essential element of a free and functioning society.
Mahiga called on the Somali authorities to investigate the death and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.
“This cycle of violence must stop,” he added.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says Somalia has been the second deadliest country for the media in 2012 after Syria.
This month, another journalist was also shot dead in the capital.
“It is all the more poignant coming in the wake of the Constitutional Conference on Freedom of Expression in which Somali leaders expressed their uncompromising support to press freedom.
Last week, the Ministry for Constitutional Affairs and Reconciliation organized a two-day consultative conference on Freedom of Expression, Media Law and Transitional Justice in Mogadishu which made recommendations for the draft interim Constitution.
The discussions centered on the challenges to freedom of expression faced by civil society leaders and journalists and raised the need to enhance the judicial system to bring perpetrators before a court of law.
-0- PANA AO/VAO 24May2012
Shabelle Radio broadcaster, Ahmed Addow Anshuur, was gunned down and killed in Mogadishu on Thursday, making him the sixth journalist to be killed in Somalia this year.
Mahiga said he was dismayed to learn of the brutal murder of the Somali journalist in Mogadishu.
“It is well known that Somali journalists have the most difficult working conditions in the world. But that does not make it any easier to accept when one is brutally killed,” Mahiga said.
The UN envoy regretted that Anshuur was targeted in cold blood killing for carrying out his job as a professional journalist, an essential element of a free and functioning society.
Mahiga called on the Somali authorities to investigate the death and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.
“This cycle of violence must stop,” he added.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says Somalia has been the second deadliest country for the media in 2012 after Syria.
This month, another journalist was also shot dead in the capital.
“It is all the more poignant coming in the wake of the Constitutional Conference on Freedom of Expression in which Somali leaders expressed their uncompromising support to press freedom.
Last week, the Ministry for Constitutional Affairs and Reconciliation organized a two-day consultative conference on Freedom of Expression, Media Law and Transitional Justice in Mogadishu which made recommendations for the draft interim Constitution.
The discussions centered on the challenges to freedom of expression faced by civil society leaders and journalists and raised the need to enhance the judicial system to bring perpetrators before a court of law.
-0- PANA AO/VAO 24May2012
