Somali-British journalist Jamal Osman was on Sunday detained in Mogadishu shortly after arriving at the country’s main airport, Aden Abdulle International Airport (AAIA).
He was arrested by officers serving under the National Security and Intelligence Agency (NISA) shortly after showing up at the arrivals of the airport.
According to sources, the multi-award-winning journalist and filmmaker is being detained at a facility within the airport inside the heavily fortify Halane Millitary Base Camp.
Sources privy to incident indicate that the broadcaster who is under arrest at the airport might be deported on Monday.
Jamal is a dual British- Somali citizen resides in the United Kingdom.
It is unclear why Osman is being detained, but his reporting on Al Shabaab earlier this year may be the catalyst.
Abukar Arman, a Somali political analyst and former Special Envoy to the United States said arrests of journalists in the country must cease, detained journalists freed and repealing legislation that restricts press freedom.
Confirming the arrest of the scribe on Sunday, Mr Arman said patterns of silencing journalists must stop.
“We should not accept jingoism as a national policy,” he added.
I just learned from a reliable source that award winning journalist @JamalMOsman of @Channel4News has been arrested at Mogadishu airport by @HSNQ_NISA.
This pattern of silencing journalists must stop. We should not accept jingoism as a national policy. @CPJAfrica @hrw @amnesty— 4DialogSk (@Abukar_Arman) December 18, 2022
Jamal Osman gained unprecedented access to Mahad Karat, one of the top leaders of the Al-Qaeda allied militant group al-Shabaab, in Somalia earlier this year.
In a brave and ground-breaking film he was able to hold Karate to account in a way that no journalist has done before.
Despite the buzzing of American drones, as the interview took place Jamal calmly interrogated the man with a 5 million dollar bounty on his head.
His answers were illuminating and chilling, especially when the viewer saw the most recent class of graduates from Shabaab’s own training school, fully armed and ready to continue the deadly attacks which are the group’s signature, both inside and outside Somalia.
Jamal was awarded by the Rory Peck awards this year in honor of the quality and impact his work and his individual endeavour and journalistic integrity.
Established in 1995, the Awards highlights the significant contribution of freelance journalists to the international media industry and celebrates the most outstanding work produced each year.
Jamal Osman has been a freelance journalist since 2008.
He was worked on stories in Europe and the United States as well as in the UK.
His speciality has become telling stories from Africa by gaining access to regions and figures that others have not been able to.
In the past 2 years Jamal has filed a succession of important reports from Ethiopia chronicling the countries descent in civil and inter-ethnic war.
In his reporting, he has been able to use local contacts to gain access to some of the worst effected areas to tell stories that viewers would not get from any other journalist.
He has returned time and time again to his native Somalia to tell stories ranging from the challenges facing disabled athletes, to drought and conflict.
Elsewhere he has covered the boom in cobalt mining in the southern DRC and the journeys of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa on the perilous trail to Europe in search of new lives.
“The stories he tells have a huge audience in the countries that he reports from, countries in which reliable information is often at a premium, but what really sets him apart is his bravery, the access he manages to secure and the trust he has among his audience to tell stories that really matter to them,” said Rory Peck awards team following after becoming one of the finalist for the award.
Jamal’s work reports on the impact of conflict, oppression and climate change on local communities through powerful and intimate footage from Ethiopia’s Tigray to the Arctic, Nigeria to India.
The detention of the scribe comes hours after ARTICLE 19 Eastern Africa and six other freedom of expression organisations called on the Somali government to work towards creating a safe and empowering environment for Somali journalists and activists to operate and freely exercise their
human rights.
In a statement, the media rights groups have asked Somalia’s attorney general to drop all charges against Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, the Secretary General of the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS), with immediate effect.
“Mumin has faced persistent threats from the Somali authorities because of his work as a journalist and an advocate for freedom of expression. His human rights have been violated, including through arbitrary arrests and detention and being denied a fair trial,” read the statement sent to newsrooms in parts.
They further said Mumin’s case is part of a wider trend of ongoing attacks on journalists by successive governments in Somalia.
His case they said will contributes to the chilling effect on the journalism community and the wider civil society.
He was initially arrested on 11 October 2022 by officers from the Somali National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA).
Mr Mumin’s arrest came a day after he, along with directors of four other media organisations, raised concerns on the Somalia Ministry of Information’s order ‘prohibiting dissemination of extremism ideology messages, both from traditional media broadcasts and social media’.
In a statement he read on behalf of other media defenders in Mogadishu Muumin said the government command could restrict legitimate free speech in the country.
The Somalia Mechanism for Safety of Journalists (SMSJ), the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS), the Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ), the Somali Media Association (SOMA) and the Somali Independent Media Houses Association (SIMHA) said in a joint statement said they were not consulted as media stakeholders before the government made the directive.
He was detained at Godka Jilaow, a NISA detention facility in Mogadishu, where he was repeatedly denied access to a lawyer and to his family.
According to reporters without borders Journalists in the country operate in a corrupt and violent environment.
More than 50 media workers have been killed since 2010, making Somalia the most dangerous country for journalists in Africa.
The current legal framework is extremely repressive, frequently forcing journalists to face court cases, which are used to justify prolonged detention and civilian courts that rely on a 1964 penal code or laws that date from the military regime of President Siyad Barre.
A moratorium on journalist arrests, which authorities promised in 2020, has still not been adopted.
On the other hand Al-Shabaab attacks journalists who do not practice self-censorship.
The militants group with links to Al-Qaeda is the main killer of journalists according to statistics by Reporters without Borders.
Media professionals also run the risk of arrest and arbitrary detention with 34 cases recorded in 2021 alone as well as torture and media shut-downs.
Officials in the breakaway region of Somaliland and Northern semi-autonomous state of Puntland are especially repressive and exert enormous pressure on local media.
