Somalia’s new media law ignores calls for journalists to be protected
Concerned about a new media law that contains
significant improvements but fails to prevent imprisonment for media-related
offences, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on Somalia’s most senior
federal authorities to decree an urgent moratorium on arrests of journalists,
without which press freedom will not be able to progress.
The long-awaited package of amendments to the
controversial 2016 Media Law that President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, also
known as “Farmaajo,” signed into law this week has not, as many had hoped,
eliminated the possibility of journalists being jailed in connection with their
work. It does contain major advances that will help to guarantee freedom of
expression and opinion and press freedom, as enshrined in the 2012 Federal
Provisional Constitution. It also provides for public service broadcasting,
thereby helping to promote editorial independence and public accountability,
according to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), a press freedom
NGO that is RSF’s partner in Somalia.
But, despite RSF’s recommendations, the new law is
not accompanied by any moratorium on arrests of journalists, which continue to
take place at an alarming level, one of the highest in Africa.
There are major concerns about the new law’s
criminalization of journalistic activities. Article 3 makes it illegal for
journalists to be compelled by threat or force – for example, by political or
armed actors – to publish “information which conflicts with the interests of
the country, security, the economy, politics and society.” The new law does not
protect the confidentiality of sources and makes it possible for journalists to
be held responsible for the consequences of disclosing confidential
information. It allows journalists to be fined for violations without limiting
the size of the fines. And it says that verdicts and sentences can be appealed
before unspecified “competent jurisdictions,” opening the way to prison
sentences.
“The amended media law contains some encouraging
articles but they are undermined by the criminalization of journalistic acts,
which continues to the part of the law despite our recommendations, and it does
not decree a moratorium on arrests of journalists,” RSF editor-in-chief Pauline
Adès-Mével said.“Somalia is still, and will continue to be, one of the
continent’s most repressive countries as regards arrests of journalists. We
call on the federal authorities to go further with media law reform in order to
enable Somali journalists to work freely and without constraints, otherwise the
government's promises of efforts in favour of press freedom and democratic
values will remain unfulfilled.”
During a meeting in Paris in November 2019 with
Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre, RSF urged the rapid adoption of a
national mechanism to protect and secure journalists. Somalia continues to be
Africa’s deadliest country for journalists, with more than 50 killed in the
past ten years. Efforts have nonetheless been made to combat impunity in recent
years. A police officer who shot a journalist dead at a checkpoint was
convicted in absentia and given a prison sentence. Two soldiers were discharged
from the army for mistreating reporters. And, in response to a request from the
NUSOJ, a court ordered the attorney-general’s office to investigate the more
than 50 murders of journalist that remain unpunished.
Somalia is ranked 163rd out of 180 countries in
RSF's 2020 World Press Freedom Index.
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