On 11 October 2022, the Somali authorities arrested the Secretary General of Somali Journalists Syndicates (SJS) Abdalle Ahmed Mumin at Aden Adde International Airport in the capital Mogadishu. 

This arbitrary arrest of Abdalle, who was on his way to the Kenyan capital Nairobi, is added to the increased poor record of violations against journalists in this African country, where the government and armed militias share threats and abuses against press workers.

According to the SJS, the detention of Mumin comes just a day after media rights groups, including the Somali Journalists Syndicate, signed a joint statement expressing their concern about the government's comprehensive ban on coverage of Al-Shabab-related news.

Days earlier, specifically on 8 October, the Somali government blocked dozens of accounts on social networks and news websites on charges of spreading propaganda in support of Al-Shabab.

Women Journalists Without Chains (WJWC) has called for the Somali authorities to “immediately refrain from preventing the coverage of events and the flow of information in Somalia, where journalists already suffer from huge obstacles to free access to information."

The WJWC has strongly condemned the arrest of the Secretary General of the Somali Journalists Syndicate, and demanded the Somali authorities for the immediate release of the detained journalists, including the Syndicate's Secretary General, Abdalle Ahmed Mumin.

In the same context, the Yemeni press freedom advocate also called for eliminating all restrictions on freedom of expression in the country, including the 1964 Penal Code used widely by the authorities to pose restrictions on journalists and their work.

Somalia continues to be ranked among the countries most hostile to practice of journalism worldwide due to the prevailing culture of impunity.

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Issued by 

Women Journalists Without Chains 

October 17, 2022