media - Blogs - poetsofottawa3

22 July 2010 : AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: Amnesty International has called on Somali authorities and armed opposition groups in the country to respect freedom of expression amid a growing government crackdown on independent journalism.

A campaign of harassment and intimidation has seen a spate of arrests and interrogations of journalists since June. Media workers already face serious threats from armed groups, with 10 reporters killed in the last 18 months.

Amnesty International's new briefing paper, Hard News: Journalists' lives in danger in Somalia, launched on Somali Human Rights Day (22 July), documents the targeting of journalists in the country.

"Somali journalists are being prevented from informing the local population about daily violence that affects their lives - a service that is particularly vital in a conflict too dangerous for consistent international media reporting," said Michelle Kagari, Amnesty International's Africa deputy director.

"Somalia's authorities must investigate the attacks and harassment of journalists, both by armed groups and members of their own government, and ensure that freedom of expression is respected."

Somalia's internationally backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) controls only a small part of the capital Mogadishu, while the rest of southern and central Somalia is under the control of armed groups.

The two largest are al-Shabab and Hizbul Islam, which are allied against the TFG but have also engaged in fighting against each other.

While the armed groups are the most deadly threat to journalists in the country, media workers have come under increased pressure from the TFG in a recent clampdown on independent journalism.

On 26 June, New York Times correspondent Mohammed Ibrahim fled Somalia after threats from government security forces, following the publication of an article alleging that government forces included child soldiers.

On 29 June, several journalists were wounded when missiles were fired on a press conference being held by Al-Shabab in Mogadishu. Local journalists at the scene believe they were indirectly targeted by the TFG, who did not want the press conference to go ahead.

On 1 July, police detained journalist Mustafa Haji Abdinur and freelance cameraman Yusuf Jama Abdullahi for taking pictures of their colleague, photojournalist Farah Abdi Warsame, who had been hit in the crossfire during fighting in Mogadishu.

The journalists were interrogated and forced to delete their photographs. Warsame was only able to get medical treatment after being interrogated.

"Rather than protecting journalists from feared armed groups such as al-Shabab, the Somali authorities are increasing the problems for media workers by adding to the harassment they face," said Michelle Kagari.

Armed groups opposed to the Somali government now control many towns in the country. They have killed, harassed and intimidated journalists, shut down radio stations, restricted what local media can report on and frequently prevent journalists from publishing information which they believe is unfavourable towards them. This makes it almost impossible to disseminate vital information on the situation in Somalia.

On 5 May - the most recent journalist killing - three gunmen shot dead broadcast journalist Sheik Nur Mohamed Abkey as he was returning home from the state-run Radio Mogadishu.

He was abducted by the gunmen near his home in southern Mogadishu and then shot repeatedly in the head. Members of al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the killing.

In 2009, nine journalists were killed, the highest total in any one year since 1991, when armed conflict broke out after the collapse of ex-President Siad Barre’s government.

In the first five months of 2010, in addition to the killing of one journalist, many more were abducted and harassed by armed groups.

The TFG was backed militarily by Ethiopian troops who remained in Somalia until early 2009. TFG officials and institutions are now protected by the African Union Mission in Somalia, AMISOM.

The TFG is opposed by a number of armed Islamist groups. Groups on both sides of the conflict often overlap, forge or shift alliances, or divide into separate groups.

Read the report:
Hard News: Journalists' lives in danger in Somalia

****************************

For further information, please contact:
John Tackaberry, Media Relations
613-744-7667, ext. 236

Looking at every website where one has to choose the category of naming a country for any reason whatsoever to be redirected to the next stage of service, one finds Israel is enlisted but no mention of Palestine. This deprives us Palestinians from our freedom of choice and expression when we are forced to choose the box that is nearest to the geographical area, thus forcing us to tick the box that says we are from Israel instead of Palestine since there is no box for Palestine, this has serious implications and outcomes on research especially when participating in online polls, which reflects a hugely distorted views that hardly makes sense.Knowing the fact that Palestine has been called with its name for at least a couple of thousands of years, and the same geographical area turned to be called Israel only for the last 60 years or so, shows how the new media joins the conspiracy army that is distorting the facts and rewriting the history and misleading the coming generations while riding the academic horse.Even those who accepted the decision imposed by the west on the Arab leaders to accept the decision of calling part of Palestine as Israel, ignore the fact that the so called ‘Israel’ has refused to define its borders, and there is no definite area one can name ‘Israel’, and that the elasticised borders of this malignant cancer entity has been expanding since it was implanted in the heart of Palestine in 1948, hence when any resolution, decision, debate, article, or website says ‘ Israel’ no one can claim he knows where Israel’s borders exactly end, it is an ever inflating greedy state. Menahem Begin, an ex prime Minister of Israel once said “our boundaries are where our soldiers reached”, so I dare any of the so called media egg heads to show me a definite map of Israel that the so called state of ‘Israel’ would approve of.

This point is of extreme importance since such defined borders would lead to declaring the borders of what is left of Palestine, thus it can be called the West Bank, or declare the validity of the equation that says (Palestine – the stolen land = X), consequently X would be declared a constant and would be introduced to the choice lists of new media thus stopping the acts of history hijacking and information forgery.

When I am asked to tick an online box to go to the next stage, I am FORCED to name my homeland as Israel otherwise I am not transferred to the next stage of service because this is the way online services are programmed. I will never call my home country Israhell, this might mean that I am breaking the rules if I do not fill the forms accordingly, or I might end up deprived of the service regardless of its nature being an application for a job or a simple request of a song. This is what I call manipulating the sleep walking people in the new media public sphere to give in to some group’s decision that there is no more a country called Palestine, and to give in to calling it Israel even though there is an unresolved dispute still going on for 60 years.Some would say that Arab leaders themselves accepted calling a certain area of Palestine as Israel as a small step on the way of taming us and as a compromise on the Arab leaders’ part to be granted the honour of joining the table of the grownups in UN or other international players’ committee. I would say sorry, you are talking about the same area that none of the 4.5 million Palestinian refugees in the Diaspora would accept calling Israel; and still call it the Palestinian occupied areas of 1948 because they dream of going back to their homes and properties or at least accept a compensation settlement.An important point to make here, that no Palestinian has chosen any Arab leader to represent him/ her, not even choosing the late leader Yasser Arafat through democratic procedures. No one has been granted guardianship over our votes or voices, and we never appointed any leader to speak on our behalf, but still the same hypocrite Western media which keeps howling about the dictatorships of Arab leaders rule and their lack of democracy tells the world that those same disrespected Arab leaders by the West are accepted to represent us at some conference and agreed on our behalf to downgrade the name of our homeland to be called Israel. Since when the Western media respects Arab leaders’ decisions or take what they say into consideration.Since we Palestinians never accepted calling our stolen home land as Israel, and since we have no democratic representation, and since there are two points of view to be taken into consideration; the Palestinian side of the story, and the Zionist side, and since this debate is not resolved yet, how on earth respected ethical media colleagues and journalistic bodies have chosen to call the same plot of land disputed upon as Israel. Doesn’t this reflect that media professionals are a heard led by the Zionists by the collar, or such trend shows lack of knowledge, professionalism, ethics or good judgement, or even worse that new media hooliganism is going on and not much can be done about such bullying methods because they are in control.As far as I know when two parties have a dispute over naming something, the media is supposed to be impartial until the point in dispute is resolved by looking in its tool box for a reasonable temporary solution this is what I call ethical journalism and making conscientious choices.

media (2)

Somalia: Journalists under attack as government steps up media crackdown - News Update

Unethical new media and programming the polls: switching Palestine’s name to Israel / Iqbal Tamimi

Note: this page contains paid content.