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NAIROBI (AFP) - An international press freedom watchdog demanded the release Wednesday of a journalist held in the breakaway Somali state of Somaliland for almost a week without charge. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said that Abdirahman Mohammed Habane, a journalist with the Jamhuuriya daily newspaper based in the Somaliland capital Hargeisa, was arrested in the town of Borame July 12.
"The hostility of the Somaliland authorities toward journalists must stop," the press freedom group said, pointing out that another Somaliland reporter was arbitrarily detained for several days and beaten earlier this month.
RSF said that the local journalists union believed that Habane was arrested over an article July 5 in which he referred to "incidents that took place during the swearing-in of an elder as the local chief."
Jamhuuriya editor Hassan Said Yusuf has been arrested 15 times in the past 10 years.
Source: AFP, July 18, 2007