Television journalist Ahmed Saakin Farah Ilyas was shot dead on Tuesday (23 October) and became the 16th journalist to be killed in Somalia this year.
Farah, 25, worked for the privately-owned Universal Television in Las Anod, in the breakaway northwestern territory of Somaliland.
“It’s a shocking murder, and part of the anti-media campaign,” said fellow journalist Abdullahi Ahmed Nor.
According to the press freedom watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, Somalia now ranks alongside Syria as the deadliest countries in the world for journalists in 2012. No suspects have been arrested for any of the murders.
At one time, the killing of journalists – during the Mogadishu conflict years – was usually carried out by al-Shabab the Islamist group linked to al-Qaeda.
But this year the list of potential killers has also included business leaders and politicians, said Tom Rhodes, of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
“Everyone knows in Somalia that you can kill a journalist and there will be no repercussions,” he said, adding: “The other problem is that some of the perpetrators of these murders may very well be those in authority so they can hide behind their positions.”
Mohamed Ibrahim, the secretary of a journalists’ union in Somalia, believes that most killings are carried out by al-Shabab militants while the rest “are either politically motivated assassinations or by independent criminals whose aim are all about disrupting the increasing media landscape in Somalia.”
The British ambassador to Somalia, Matt Baugh, and the UN representative to Somalia, Augustine Mahiga, have appealed to the Somali government to halt the killings.
In addition to the 16 deaths, about 20 other journalists have been injured in attacks, including Mohamud Tuuryare, a journalist for the Shabelle media network who was shot at the weekend and is now in a critical condition.
Here is the full Somali toll this year:
January 28: Hassan Osman Abdi, director of Shabelle radio in Mogadishu; February 28: Abukar Hassan Mohamoud, director of Somaliweyn Radio in Mogadishu; March 4: Ali Ahmed Abdi, reporter for Radio Galkayo, in Galkayo, central Somalia;
April 5: Mahad Salad Aden, reporter with Shabelle radio, in Beledweyne, central Somalia; May 2: Farhan Jeemis Abdulle, reporter with Radio Daljir, in Galkayo; May 23: Ahmed Addow Anshur, producer with Shabelle radio, in Mogadishu;
July 31: Abdi Jeylani Malaq, comedian and TV producer, in Mogadishu; August 12: Yusuf Ali Osman, reporter who was serving as the director of Somalia’s information ministry; Mohamud Ali Yare, correspondent with Radio Hamar, in Mogadishu;
September 20: Liban Ali Nur, editor at Somali National TV; Abdisatar Daher Sabriye, reporter with Radio Mogadishu; and Abdirahman Yasin Ali, director of Radio Hamar -all killed by suicide bomber in Mogadishu;
September 21: Hassan Yusuf Absuge, Radio Maanta, in Mogadishu; September 27: The Abdirahman Mohamed Ali, sports writer, near Mogadishu; September 28: Ahmed Abdullahi Fanah, reporter with the Yemeni news agency SABA, in Mogadishu; October 23: Ahmed Saakin Farah, Universal Television, in Somaliland.
Sources: Associated Press