HARGEISA — Somaliland’s government ordered the shut down of the country’s oldest and most popular private television network on Saturday, in a bold violation of its pledges to respect freedom of expression during election campaigns.Reliable sources told Somalilandpress by telephone that police armed with AK-47 assault rifles stormed the marketing and broadcasting offices of Horn Cable TV (HCTV) in the capital around 6:30 P.M. on Saturday. They subsequently ordered the on-duty operators to vacate and immediately took them away– they remain in custody until now. They further declared that the police also apprehended the director of HCTV Mohamed Abdi Sheekh (also known as “Ilig”) and is said to be behind bars now.The closure came after the president blasted the network in his joint session of Parliament address on Saturday in which he accused the TV of spreading false information and propaganda. He said the network was taking the country into a vortex of violence by spreading incitement, hostility and feuds between opposing tribal units. Somalilandpress has learned that Abdullahi Mohamed Dahir, Presidential Spokesman, and Hirsi Ali haji Hasan, Minister for Presidency, jointly ordered the closure of the network.Recently the government launched a massive crackdown against private media outlets in the country — arresting as many as seven in the past week, with three still believed to be in custody without being charged. The New York-based, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said it was alarmed by the sweeping arrests and attacks on journalists in the country. “The spate of arrests sends a chilling message to the Somaliland press and demonstrates the government’s intolerance of independent and critical reporting,” said CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes. He urged the government to end its brutal crackdown against the press. “Arrest and detention should not be the knee-jerk response of the authorities to reporting. The journalists should be charged or released immediately.”Founded in 2003 in the capital, Hargeisa, HCTV is partly owned by the new disputed candidate leader of the opposition party of United Democratic People’s Party (UDUB), Jamal Ali Hussein. The government mainly targets HCTV and Waaheen newspaper, two private media who have close working relations with the opposition UDUB party.The current crackdown against media is seen as a contradicting move by a government which declared its “commitment to freedom of the press” during election campaigns in mid-2010. It was one the reason Somalilanders cast their vote for President Silanyo’s Kulmiye party. However after a just over a year in the helm, it appears the honeymoon between Kulmiye and private media is over. During UDUB rule the media was targeted less even though private radios were banned — Somaliland became a safe heaven for journalists fleeing Somalia’s conflict and other regions.Somalilandpress Number-one English-Somali websiteSaturday, Jan 14, 2012
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