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ROARS, GROWLS, GALLOPING HOOVES REPLACED MUSIC IN MOGADISHU.

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Mogadishu.

Most radio stations in Somalia have stopped playing music, on the orders of Islamist Hizbul-Islam insurgents who say that songs are un-Islamic.

The stations said they had to comply with the ban as if they did not, they would be putting their lives at risk.

The threat left radio stations scrambling to scrub even the briefest suggestion of music from their daily programming. “Bam! Bam! Bam!” — the sound of gunshots that Somalis in Mogadishu have grown accustomed to hearing — was played by Radio Shabelle on its news broadcast to replace the music it usually uses to introduce the segment.

Similarly odd sounds — like the roar of an engine, a car horn, animal noises and the sound of water flowing — were used to introduce programs on some of the other radio stations that stopped playing music.

“We have replaced the music of the early morning program with the sound of the rooster, replaced the news music with the sound of the firing bullet and the music of the night program with the sound of running horses,” said Osman Abdullahi Gure, the director of Radio Shabelle radio and television, one of the most influential stations in Mogadishu.

“It was really a crush,” he said. “We haven’t had time to replace all the programs at one time; instead, we have chosen these sounds.”

More than a dozen radio stations complied with the order by the militant group Hizbul Islam, the National Union of Somali Journalists said.

Somalis in Mogadishu can still listen to music on two stations: one government controlled, the other UN funded.

ENDS….

KENYA POLICE SET TO PARTNER WITH PRIVATE GUARDS.

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Nairobi.

Men in blue uniform might soon start sharing intelligence with private security groups in an attempt to curb crime in major urban centres.

State security agencies set to benefit from tapping criminal intelligence that is gathered by private security companies whose spread in crime prone areas such as urban centres is higher than that of state agencies responsible for fighting crime.

The two sides will meet this week under the guidance of the Police Reform Implementation Committee (PRIC) to work out rules of engagement, according to a notice placed in the press.

Nairobi, Kenya’s capital is a teeming city of have-nots and have-lots, so notorious for violent crime that it is often called “Nai-robbery.” But there is a new problem, or at least one that is causing new fear — kidnapping, and several recent attacks have been on children and even adults.

More than 100 Nairobi residents have been abducted for ransom last year, security consultants say, a huge increase over years past. Big chunks of money are changing hands. And as the security experts say, the minute you start paying ransom, kidnapping goes from a crime to a business. Just ask those in Mexico City, in Baghdad or in Bogotá, Colombia.

Many people here are beginning to wonder if the Kenyan thugs may have been inspired by their Somali brethren next door, who have made millions snatching foreigners on land and sea.

City-based security expert Werunga Simiyu said the crimes were being fuelled by police inability to come up with clear strategies to tackle the gangs.

He cited also the haste with which relatives of kidnap victims were paying the ransom.

“We have a problem where people, instead of going through traumatizing moments, decide to pay the ransom demanded. All the government has to do is invest in training of special crimes police officers to deal with the menace,” Werunga said.

The Kenya Alliance of Resident Associations executive director Stephen Mutoro said members had been reporting more incidents of carjacking and attempted and actual kidnaps. “It is a worrying trend. We are encouraging our members to report all incidents to the police,” he said and urged the public to help the police by making the reports.

Mutoro said that while the association last year handled between 50 and 60 crime reports from its members, they had by last month recorded 50 incidents of carjacking, attempted kidnaps and other crimes.

City police boss Anthony Kibuchi said the police had managed to break up several kidnap rings with the assistance of the public who reported the crimes on time.

“The sooner we get information of a crime the sooner we are able to track-down the perpetrators,” said Kibuchi.

Kibuchi conceded carjacking were still going on despite measures taken to bring down the crime. He said his department had established a special team of officers drawn from the Special Crime Prevention Unit to deal with the kidnappings and carjacking.

Kibuchi said the team was responsible for the rescue of two women abducted from Embakasi last month whose kidnappers were demanding Sh2 million from their families.

Most people and firms are increasingly spending more money on security services in an effort to prevent burglary and break-ins at a time when businesses are looking for ways to cut costs.

“The practice today is that if a private security guard goes to report a crime to the Police, he is arrested as the first suspect. But we want to move over that and share this information cordially,” said Caxton Munyoki, the chairman of the Kenya Security Industry Association (KSIA).

Security analysts say sharing of information between the two groups could greatly help deter crimes.

By virtue of being well spread in crime-prone areas, private guards are able to know the mode of operation of criminals and can therefore offer crucial information which can lead to arrest of the criminals.

Security companies reported a surge in their investments towards the end of last year because of high demand for their services from corporate that reported increasing crime, and then attributed to economic slowdown.

The meeting will also “make further proposals to enhance formal coordination and partnership between the Government security agencies and the private security providers,” notes a public invitation.

The partnership will mark a major departure in Kenya’s national security structure by allowing independent bodies to feed intelligence to the Government security agencies.

ENDS…..

AL SHABAB MILITANT IN SOMALIA BANS BBC AND VOA FROM ITS TERRITORIES OF COMMAND.

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Mogadishu.

Al-shabab militant group have closed studios of various international media houses in Mogadishu on Friday making broadcasts come to stand still in Mogadishu and all the areas under their control in South and central Somalia.

Witnesses say Somali Islamists are seizing radio transmitters that let the local population hear news programs from the British Broadcasting Corporation. The studios for the BBC and other local Fm radio stations are among those affected.

In a press statement from Al-shabab’s press office, the insurgents announced that they have taken over particularly the BBC studios and would stop all broadcasts of the VOA through the local fm stations.

They accused the BBC and VOA for fulfilling foreign missions and it campaigns for an Islamic nation not to be found in Somalia. And asked the people to stop listening to these stations which they termed as media agencies which are implementing an in direct modern colonization.

The group fights a daily battle against a weak fragile U.N.-backed government led by Sheikh Sheriff Sheikh Ahmed. Somalia has not had an effective government for nearly 20 years.

ENDS……

KENYA MAY RECEIVE NEW CONSTITUTION, BUT CONTROVERSIAL AMENDMENTS THREATENS ITS PASSAGE.

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Nairobi.

After nearly two decades of waiting, Kenyans may finally receive a new constitution.  Political leaders are calling for Kenya to support the proposed set of laws, but controversial amendments threaten its passage through referendum in the coming months.

Attorney General Amos Wako has received the draft constitution from the parliament and has 30 days to publish it.

Kenya moved one step closer to reform last week when parliament unanimously passed the proposed constitution and sent it to the attorney general for drafting.

While receiving the draft law from the Speaker of the National Assembly, Amos Wako promised Kenyans that he would not make any alterations to the document.

Wako, the government’s legal chief advisor also said that he would publish the draft before the end of the 30-day period provided by the review Act.

“I want to assure the people of Kenya that I will not amend, I will not affect any alteration to the draft,” said Wako.

The Constitution says the AG should publish the draft within 30 days of receiving it from Parliament but he said he would do that sooner than the set period.

PSC Chairman Mohammed Abdikadir urged the long-serving AG, who has been in office almost since the beginning of the quest for a new set of laws in 1990s, to move with speed so that the document can be published soon and the issues made clear.

Parliament last week passed the draft without any amendments after several attempts to introduce changes were frustrated by walkouts from MPs.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga has ruled out the possibility of amending the draft constitution saying that the process has reached a point of no return.

“The general wish of the majority of Kenyans is reflected in the Draft Constitution.

“No one should pretend that they are the only ones who can gauge and determine what the country needs,” Odinga told a news conference in Nairobi.

He said that once Parliament had passed the proposed Constitution, the next stage on the roadmap as set out by the Constitution of Kenya Review Act (2008) is clear:

With the draft moving towards a referendum, Kenya’s churches have emerged as the most significant threat to its passage.

Many religious groups in Kenya are opposed to a provision in the document that allows doctors to terminate a pregnancy if it threatens a mother’s life.

They are also opposed to articles that allow Kadhis courts to deliver judgment disputes over marriage, divorce and inheritance when both parties are Muslim and consent to bring the case before a Muslim judge.

The National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) has threatened to reject the constitution if the clauses are not removed.  Muslim leaders in Kenya say they have stated a series of meeting and consultations to review the document before deciding to whether or not to back it.

The document is handed over to the AG for publication and “onward remittal to the people to ratify at a referendum.”

An attempt was made in 2005 to pass a new constitution, but the proposed draft was rejected in a countrywide referendum that polarized the nation.  The 2005 referendum was seen as a direct cause of the ethnic violence that rocked the country after a disputed presidential election in December of 2007.

Between January and February 2008 1,300 people were killed and more than 300,000 were displaced  from their homes as supporters of President Mwai Kibaki and his challenger, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, clashed amidst allegations of vote rigging.

ENDS……

Malema calls BBC reporter a ‘bastard’ and ‘agent’

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Friday, 09 April 2010
IN an astonishing attack, the ANC Youth League’s president has called a BBC journalist a “bastard” and an ”agent”, according to a report in the Sowetan.
Julius Malema was addressing the media on the ANCYL’s recent visit to Zimbabwe. He criticised Zimbabwean opposition party the Movement for Democratic Change, saying they should go back to Zimbabwe instead of working from offices in Sandton, Johannesburg.British Broadcasting Corporation journalist Jonah Fisher interjected, saying Malema lived in Sandton — unleashing a barrage of insults.

“This is a building of a revolutionary party and you know nothing about revolution so here you behave or else you jump,” he said, speaking from Luthuli House in the Johannesburg CBD.

Fisher attempted to respond, but Malema did not relent.

“Chief, can you get security to remove this thing here?” he requested of staff present on Luthuli House’s 11th floor, the venue for most party media briefings.

“If you are not going to behave we are going to call security to take you out. This is not a newsroom this, this is a revolutionary house and you don’t come here with your white tendency. Don’t come here with that white tendency, not here, you can do it somewhere else.

“If you’ve got a tendency of undermining blacks even where you work you are in the wrong place.”
To which Fisher replied: “That’s rubbish.”

Malema then asked him to leave saying: “… Rubbish is what you have covered in that trouser, that is rubbish.”
“You are a small boy, you can’t do anything. Bastard, go out, you bloody agent.”

The BBC declined to comment when contacted after the briefing.

MEDIA UNDER ATTACK IN SOUTH SUDAN AHEAD OF APRIL ELECTION.

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In southern Sudan journalist are facing intimidation as security clamp down on reporters ahead of Sudan’s first multi-party election due to be held next month.

Agency for independent media (AIM) based in southern Sudan has recorded alarming reports of intimidation of media practitioners across the autonomous south this year, including arrests and violence.

David De Dau head of AIM says the freedom of press is under attack.

“Journalists have been arrested, harassed, intimidated, threatened, humiliated, molested, tortured and detained for no clear reason,” he told reporters in the southern capital Juba.

One journalist in Unity State was beaten after security forces grew angry at comments made by the public on a call-in show on a community radio station, Dau said.

On Wednesday last week security personnel stormed into the buildings and closed down two radio stations, Liberty FM and a community radio station Bakhita FM, after they broadcast interviews with a campaign team from independent candidate running for governor of central Equatoria.

“We are expecting more intimidation and harassment,” said Dau. A media law for the autonomous south has been drafted but its passing has been delayed by parliament, something that has infuriated many journalists.

“The harassment is not an organized move, but it is a rampant practice,” Dau said.

South Sudan Director General Information Mustafa Majak denies the allegation of harassment of journalist and closure of the radio stations.

 Journalists are not seen as key players in the development of democracy in the south, but are seen as spies or agents or parties opposed to the government.

South Sudan political parties signed a code of conduct to ensure free and fair elections, which also committed them protection of journalists’ rights.

During South Sudan’s civil war with the north two million people were killed, in a conflict fuelled by religion, ethnicity, ideology, resources and oil.

ENDS….

ETHIOPIA SUPRESSING OPPOSITION AHEAD OF MAY POLLS, WARNS RIGHTS GROUP.

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Human Rights watch in a report released in Nairobi on Wednesday warned the Ethiopian government is waging a coordinated and sustained attack on political opposition, journalist and rights activists ahead of the May 2010 elections.

The 59-page report, shows how the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Front (EPRDF) has systematically punished opposition supporters, the report also documents how recently enacted laws severely restrict the activities of civil society and the media.

“Expressing dissent is very dangerous in Ethiopia,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The ruling party and the state are becoming one, and the government is using the full weight of its power to eliminate opposition and intimidate people into silence.”

Government repression has caused many civil society activists and journalists to flee the country in recent months. The most prominent independent newspaper was closed in December 2009 and the government jammed Voice of America radio broadcasts last month. Ethiopians are unable to speak freely, organize political activities, and challenge their government’s policies – whether through peaceful protest, voting, or publishing their views – without fear of reprisal.

“Since 2005, state resources have also been used to press individuals to join the ruling party so that they can benefit from access to services, jobs, and economic activity,” said the 59-page report, citing more than 200 interviews in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia is heavily dependent on foreign assistance which counts for one-third of all government expenditures. Donors argue that they have to work with the government to gain access to millions of needy Ethiopians, but Gagnon urges donors to channel aid in different ways and demand independent reviews of the way aid money is used.

Human Rights Watch calls on the Ethiopian government to take urgent steps to improve the electoral environment by immediately releasing all political prisoners, including Birtukan. Human Rights Watch also calls on the government to publicly order all officials and EPRDF members to cease attacks and threats against members of the political opposition, civil society, and the media; and permit independent efforts, including by international electoral observers, to investigate and publicly report on abuses.

The rights group and other activists say the government has also suppressed the media, Zenawi recently admitted that Voice of America’s Amharic channel had been jammed.

Around 200 protestors were shot following the last elections in 2005 and an unknown number of opposition figures, including Birtukan Mideksa, head of the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party, remain Imprisoned.

Ethiopia, an ally of the US in fighting terrorism in the region, has consistently denied such accusations and accuses of Human Rights Watch of trying to smear its name.

 ENDS…….