Gabbal Posted April 28, 2004 Mogadishu - Two Somali journalists have been detained separately by authorities in the breakaway republic of Somaliland and the neighbouring self-declared autonomous state of Puntland, their colleagues said on Tuesday. Abdirahman Haji Dahir, a reporter with the independent daily Haatuf, was arrested in Somaliland's port city of Berbera on Sunday after he wrote an article alleging that there was a rift between President Dahir Riyale Kahin and his deputy Ahmed Yusuf Yasin. "The journalist should be released immediately as he only exercised his freedom of expression," Haatuf's editor Yusuf Abdi Gabobe told AFP by telephone from Hargeisa, Somaliland's capital. A police officer in Hargeisa, who asked not to be named, said the journalist had been detained because he "speculated" on the relationship between the president and the vice president. He said the journalist would be charged in court soon. Authorities in Puntland arrested Abdishakur Yusuf Ali, the editor of the independent War-Ogaal newspaper, on April 21 after the publication criticised Finance Minister Abdirahman Mohamud Farole, following the alleged sale of food aid by his ministry. Ali has yet to be charged. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Monday expressed concern over the detention of the two journalists. AFP Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
