Gunmen shoot Somali journalist in Mogadishu

Somali authorities must investigate the shooting of a journalist for a national broadcaster, identify the motive, and bring the perpetrators to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Two gunmen shot Mohamed Mohamud Turyare, reporter and website editor for the Shabelle Media Network, after he left a mosque in the Hawo Tako neighborhood in the Wadajir district of Mogadishu at around 6 p.m. on Sunday, according to local journalists and news reports. Mohamed was hospitalized for gunshot wounds in his chest and abdomen, the journalists said. Government security personnel in the area returned fire, causing the assailants to flee, local journalists said, citing eyewitnesses. The journalists told CPJ that authorities had not yet ascertained the perpetrators or the motive behind the attack. "This has been an exceptionally dangerous year for Shabelle Media Network journalists and the Somali press in general," said CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes. "The ongoing attacks against journalists show the government has yet to secure Mogadishu and make it safe for the press and other democratic institutions. Media outlets must also do everything they can to ensure the safety of their staff." At least 10 journalists have been killed in Somalia so far in 2012, seven in the capital, according to CPJ research. Among the fatalities are three Shabelle Media journalists, CPJ research shows. In January, unidentified gunmen killed Hassan Osman Abdi, the former Shabelle director. Two months later, three assailants shot dead Mahad Salad Adan, a 20-year-old Shabelle correspondent, near his home. In May, four gunmen killed Shabelle presenter and producer Ahmed Addow Anshur in a market in Mogadishu. Authorities have not brought to justice any of the perpetrators responsible for these murders, CPJ research shows. Somalia ranks second worldwide on CPJ's Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where journalists are murdered regularly and killers go free.