Somali press freedom on Facebook

Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to work as a journalist. According to reports, the Somali press is targeted by hired killers and face discrimination from transitional President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed’s administration. Press freedom group Reporters without Borders’ 2008 annual report shows that journalists are under siege. “Eight dead, four injured, some 50 journalists in exile, and others holed up at home after abandoning their work in fear. To this terrible toll, must be added 53 journalists arrested while doing their job either in southern Somalia, where the capital Mogadishu is sited, in semi-autonomous Puntland in the north or in the self-proclaimed state of Somaliland in the north-west.” But now Somali journalists are fighting back online.

The Somali Journalists Rights Agency (SOJRA) recent started a Facebook group to update press freedom supporters worldwide about what they say are abuses against reporters in its country. So far the organization has posted its press releases and are encouraging supporters to spread the world about their cause.