Ban on VOA reporting in Puntland "cannot be tolerated."

"The Voice of America condemns the indefinite ban on reporting imposed on three VOA journalists by the government in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in northeastern Somalia. 'This represents censorship and a serious blow to press freedoms and cannot be tolerated,' said Voice of America Director Dan Austin. 'Our journalists all over the world follow the guidelines laid out in the VOA charter; reporting that is accurate, objective and comprehensive. I urge the Puntland government to reverse this suspension immediately.' Puntland's Deputy Minister of Information Abdishakur Mire Adan issued a letter late last week, banning three VOA reporters - Nuh Muse, Mohamed Yasin, and Abdulkadir Mohamed - and any other VOA journalist from working in the region. The deputy minister also ordered all VOA affiliate FM stations to cease airing VOA programs." VOA press release, 5 October 2009.
     "At the moment, local radio stations continue to broadcast VOA's English service programs as the ban is interpreted as targeting only the news agency's Somali language service." Alan Boswell, VOA News, 5 October 2009. See previous post about same subject.
     "Some Somali people in Mogadishu and government officials have accused al Jazeera television based in Doha, Qatar of inciting the violence in Somalia, broadcasting ideas wrecking havoc in the country." Mareeg.com, 3 October 2009. Posted: 06 Oct 2009 Permalink Print