The transitional federal government (TFG) of Somalia and the country’s religious assembly have on Sunday strongly condemned the insurgents’ move to silence and loot two independent radio stations and TVs in Mogadishu earlier.
In a press statement issued on Sunday afternoon, Somali information minister Abdirahman Omar Osman said that his government is totally denouncing the brutal move of looting independent stations in the capital Mogadishu.
“We are very sorry and condemning this latest barbaric act by terrorists in Somalia” the information minister said in his Sunday’s emailed press statement.
“The targeted assassinations, extortions against journalists and the looting of media houses are part of the terrorists’ new strategy to eradicate freedom of expression and independent media in Somalia, but that will never happen,” the information minister stated in his press release.
Last night the Alqaeda-linked Alshabab terrorists and Hezbal Islam militants have separately stormed and looted the two stations.
Meanwhile, the chairman of Somali religious assembly Sheik Ahmed Abdi Dhiisow said that such a move is totally against the religion of Islam.
“Islam is peaceful, and looting people’s property is illegal and prohibited in Islamic religion, so the act of robbing these stations shows that they {AL-Shabab and Hezbal Islam} are not working for the interest of Islam” the prominent cleric told reporters on Sunday afternoon.
The confiscation of Radio stations and TVs in Mogadishu comes as last week the militants described the independent stations working in the country as “Infidel-like media” and said that re-corrections will be made.
However experts say that what was termed as “re-corrections” meant that there will be confiscations – which media owners did not understand.
