Somali Media Women Association ( SOMWA) is deeply saddened with the arrest and detention of journalist Hussien Alio Gesey by Buurhakaba District Police Command. Alio is accused of writing inflammatory posts on social media where he made a comparison between the security situation in Diinsoor district at the moment and the years back .
Hussien Alio Gesey who works with Five Somali TV based in Nairobi was said to have received a phone call from Buurhakaba District Commissioner Abdi Mohamed Ahmed who ordered him to go to the police station very quickly. According to the district commissioner of Buurhakaba, the reporter was arrested through an order issued by the Minister of Interior in South West State ,Mr Mohamed Abdukar Abdi.
We condemn such ill-treatment of the journalist. Its journalists right to gather information, investigate leads and report the real situations on the ground, Somali Media Women Association (SOMWA ) Executive Director Maryan Seylac asks Southwest state authorities to release Alio with immediate effect. we denounce such acts. said the executive director
“The police action is high-handed, arbitrary and amounts to an authoritarian misuse of laws. Somali Women Journalists Association ( SOMWA) sees it as an effort to intimidate the press, and stifle freedom of expression,” Somali Media Women Association (SOMWA ) Executive Director Maryan Seylac added.
Attacks against members of the press in Somalia continued in 2020, Somali media Women Association (SOMWA ) Executive Director Maryan Seylac said.
Last week a journalist from Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region Omar Somane was arrested after Puntland authorities accused him of spreading lies, Somane is expected to appear in court soon.
