On December 3rd Hindia Haji Mohamed a mother of 5 children, who worked as journalist for a state-run radio station and TV channel in Mogadishu has lost her life, after bomb which was planted underneath the seat of her car, exploded. Hindia was the widow of a former journalist who also died in 2012 restaurant attack. She was one of the few local journalists operating in one of the most dangerous places on earth to be a journalist- Somalia. Hindia Haji Mohamed was continuing the legacy of her late husband, who also had lost his life in the same line of work. She was studying International Relations & Diplomacy at Somali International University and had the ambition of being an ambassador to represent her home country Somalia across the world.
Following her killing, two alleged Al-Shabaab members were found guilty of having planted the bomb underneath Hindia’s car. The two men were then convicted by the Somali Militatry Court to the and will receive the death penalty. Four others, accused of conspiracy were sentenced to life-in-prison, after being found guilty of coordinating the assassination of Hindia Haji Mohamed. To read the full statement on the killing of Hindia Haji Mohamed, please click here.
SIHA welcomes, the killing of Hindia’s has been investigated, as in 2015, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) ranked Somalia at the top of its list of countries where journalists’ killings go uninvestigated. However SIHA strongly condemns any application of death penalty and therefore urges the Somali government to try cases rather in front of civil rather than military court. SIHA however in the same vein, wishes to highlight and encourage the Somali government, to increase its efforts of the protection of media freedom, journalists and reporters through condemnation of attacks on the freedom of media and to carry out investigations in cases where journalists have been victims of attacks and to re-evaluate laws and legislations curtailing the freedom of press in Somalia.
