They Kill Journalists, Don't They?

Why is a U.N. diplomat comparing Somali journalists to Rwandan war criminals?

Somalia has the sad distinction of being the quintessential failed state. It is also one of the most underreported disasters in the world. The one phenomenon that penetrates international headlines—piracy—is the offshore symptom of a land-based problem.

Apart from the toll of the civil war and clan infighting, natural disasters—droughts, floods, sometimes both—and the resulting famine can lead to more deaths in a volatile country like Somalia. If the mass migration of internally displaced persons fleeing the conflict or crisis is not reported, international humanitarian groups are unable to mobilize their resources to provide help.

News is scarce because journalism is a deadly profession in Somalia. Organizations such as Reporters Sans Frontières and the Committee To Protect Journalists have consistently highlighted the situation there. Since 2007, 12 journalists have been killed in Somalia, Africa's deadliest country for the news media. So far this year, two journalists have been gunned down: In January, a reporter from Radio Shabelle and in February, Said Tahlil Ahmed, the director of HornAfrik, one of Somalia's leading privately owned radio stations.

It is therefore most unsettling, to say the least, when a special representative of the secretary-general of the United Nations for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, speaks about the work of Somali journalists in highly derogatory, indeed inflammatory terms.

Here is what happened: On Feb. 2, a suicide bomber in Mogadishu targeted Ugandan soldiers from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). Local media then reported that following the bomb blast, AMISOM troops reacted by shooting indiscriminately, possibly killing civilians in the area. Reliable sources told Human Rights Watch that at least 13 Somalis were killed and at least 15 more were wounded by the bomb blast and ensuing gunfire. "Most of the dead, many or all of whom were civilians, were killed by gunfire," says the HRW report.

The next day, in an interview with Voice of America, U.N. Special Representative Ould-Abdallah declared that he did not know the exact details of the events in Mogadishu; however, he said of reports of the incident: "What happened is to divert attention from what is going on here, and as usual to use the media to repeat Radio Mille Collines, to repeat the genocide in Rwanda."

This is very serious.

To compare journalists to génocidaires—Rwandan war criminals—is irresponsible given the tense atmosphere on the ground and the risks that all Somali journalists face when doing their jobs.