Mogadishu, 12 October 2014 – H.E. Mustafa Duhulow, Minister of Information today strongly condemned the attempted assassination of Abdirizak Jama (Black), the Director of Somali Channel TV in Mogadishu office.

The Minister of Information said “Today’s attack and the attempted assassination of Abdirizak Jama (Black) is a barbaric and heinous attack amid to silence journalists in Somalia by terrorists group Al-Shabaab. Unknown militia fired recklessly at Abdirizak and thanks God that he survived the attempted assassination. The attack took place Howlwadag district in Banadir region, where he was seriously injured in his stomach.

“Abdirizak Jama (Black) is currently being treated in Mogadishu hospital. Abdirizak was a key member of the technical group that finalized the media law that was recently passed by the cabinet. He was instrumental in the process and we wish him a speedy recovery. These terrorists group will never win their ideology of destruction and violence and we should all unite to confront them by doing what we are at best, to report the facts and not allow them to intimidate journalists who are doing excellent job.

The Federal Government has instigated an investigation in order to bring justice to those responsible for today’s attempted assassination. And we call on public to support the security and justice sectors and to come forward if they have witnessed today’s attack. We together can eliminate the threat of Al-Shabaab. This is one of the huge challenges that we have as extremists deliberately target journalists in order to silence media. We need to unite for the efforts to stop impunity and to redouble our efforts towards Somali Media Development.

END

Ministry of Information, Federal Government of Somalia,
media@moi.gov.so