Somali Journalists Arrested, Intimidated While Covering COVID-19

Somalia’s prime minister has classified media as an essential service during the COVID-19 pandemic, but at least four journalists have been briefly detained over their coverage.

As of Friday, Somalia had 80 confirmed coronavirus cases and five deaths and authorities have imposed a nighttime curfew in Mogadishu, where most of the cases were recorded.

Journalists covering the virus, including reporting on the availability of personal protection equipment or traders allegedly smuggling in goods during the quarantine have been detained and in some cases forced to drop their stories.

Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. A report by the London-based rights group Amnesty International found media at risk from al-Shabab and the government over coverage, and at least eight journalists have been killed since President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo came to power.

But observers say the pandemic has brought additional challenges.

“What we have seen recently is quite different,” said Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, secretary general of the Somali Journalists Syndicate.

It is “a new version of repression and intimidation by the government to censor journalists reporting COVID-19,” Mumin told VOA.

Mohamed Dhaysane Moalim, a freelance journalist working for the Turkish news agency Anadolu, said that being a journalist in Somalia hasn’t been easy and that he and his colleagues face “harassment, intimidation and even jailing” for covering the coronavirus