Reporter freed after being held for a week

Update : Reporters Without Borders is relieved to learn that radio reporter Daud Abdi Daud was freed today after being detained without charge for a week. Reporters Without Borders also learned that fellow journalist Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim’s lawyer today filed an appeal against Ibrahim’s one-year jail sentence. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12.02.2013 - “Journalists have the right to interview people” Reporters Without Borders is appalled to learn that Radio Kulmiye reporter Daud Abdi Daud has been held without charge for the past week and has just been transferred to Mogadishu’s main prison. He was arrested on 5 February as he left the Mogadishu court where fellow journalist Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim had just been sentenced to a year in prison for conducting a “false” interview with a woman who claimed she had been raped by soldiers. Moments before his arrest, Daud had said: “Journalists have the right to interview people.” “This latest arbitrary arrest, which is as outrageous as that of his colleague, Ibrahim, is an obvious act of intimidation, one that casts doubt on the sincerity of the Somali authorities,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Can we believe them when they say they want to promote the development of a free press in Somalia? “The police and courts must not become an additional threat to Somali journalists, who are already exposed to enormous dangers. We call for the immediate release of Daud and Ibrahim.” For more information about this affair, read the open letter that Reporters Without Borders sent to the Somali prime minister last week. Photo : Somali security forces try to disperse Somali journalists outside a court in Mogadishu on February 5, 2013 (Abdurashid Abdulle Abikar / AFP)