Police raided a workshop for repairing radio and television sets on late Wednesday afternoon arresting a technician called Deeq Mohamed Dualle and confiscating devices suspected of being used as transmission and broadcasting equipment.

The station broadcast on shortwave (SW1) from 19:00 to 02:00 and was easily heard through out Borama town. The transmission was first detected on last Sunday. Broadcasting hasn’t resumed since Wednesday.

This is the second time in less than 3 years that a private radio station has been shut in Borama by the police.

The Somaliland government banned the establishment of private radio stations in the country. The minister of Information Abdillahi Mohamed Dualle has justified the move by saying that the country had not yet adopted broadcasting regulations. He also claimed that private radio stations, if allowed to operate in Somaliland , would destabilize the country.

Dualle in a similar incident in which a private radio station established in Hargeysa was closed down, demanded that all broadcasting equipment already in the country be surrendered to the government. He warned that delinquent perspective broadcasters would be prosecuted.

Somaliland has six private newspapers and one independent television station. Most Somalilanders depend on the independent media for information on the situation in the country. The government-owned media, 3 newspapers and a radio/TV station, suffers from a credibility problem stemming from a public perception that the official media is a propaganda arm for those in power.

Home | Contact us | Links | Archives