State radio technician gunned down in Mogadishu

Reporters Without Borders is shocked to learn that Ahmed Sharif, a technician working for state-owned Radio Mogadishu, was gunned down outside his Mogadishu home on 17 August by two men armed with pistols who then fled. He was the sixth media employee to be killed since the start of the year in Somalia. “Sharif’s murder highlights the gravity of the security situation for news media operating in the Somali capital, which continues to be one of the world’s most dangerous cities for journalists,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We reiterate our request to the authorities to take whatever just measures are needed to protect media personnel and to put an end to the impunity enjoyed by the enemies of news and information.” Just hours before Sharif’s murder, Adan Sheikh Abdi Sheikh Hussein, a member of the Islamist militia Al-Shabaab, was publicly executed in a Mogadishu square for the September 2012 murder of the journalist Hassan Youssouf Absuge. Hussein was convicted by a military court. In a 29 March press release, Reporters Without Borders hailed the results achieved in the Absuge murder investigation but condemned the death sentence passed on Hussein. No link has been established between Hussein’s execution and Sharif’s murder. The humanitarian NGO Médecins sans Frontières meanwhile announced on 14 August that it is pulling out of Somalia after 22 years of continual presence because of grave security problems. See the official press release (French only). More information: - The 2013 press freedom index - RWB’s press releases on Somalia - The RWB article explaining why Al-Shabaab is on the list of “Predators of Press Freedom”