Somali Journalists Struggle to Work Amid Violence, Media Crackdown

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Twice a day, Ahmed Omar Hashi, a senior producer at Shabelle Radio here, receives a telephone call from an unidentified stranger who, in a muffled voice, threatens to kill him. Sometimes the stranger tells him he has been watching him, and knows where he at that very moment.

Such threats are a common occurrence for members of the media in Mogadishu, where security has badly degenerated since the ousting of the Islamic Courts regime in December 2006. Somalia is now the second deadliest country for journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The threats, arrests, and harassment come from both the U.S.-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and Al-Shabaab, an umbrella Islamic insurgent group, according to targeted journalists in Somalia and abroad.

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