NUSOJ calls for the release of online journalist detained in Kenya

MOGADISHU, Somalia, October 6, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) calls on Kenyan authorities to release a journalist working for an online news network who was arrested in Nairobi, Kenya.

Journalist Ibrahim Said Salah, editor of www.allcarmo.com, is detained since 27 September 2014 after he came from Bossasso, Puntland, where he has been actively working on stories on formation of political parties and Puntland's democratisation process.

Kenyan police are reportedly carrying out investigations to the website and are frequently asking the journalist questions. A Nairobi court granted Salah's detention and on-going interrogations.

The motive behind the arrest remains unspecified but journalists believe that some politicians in Puntland who are using Kenyan contacts plotted for the arrest of the journalist due to his reports on formation of political parties in the northeast regions of Somalia.

"The arrest of Ibrahim Said Salah is a disturbing development and we suspect it as an attempt to censor coverage of important political issues in Puntland” said Omar Faruk Osman, NUSOJ Secretary General.

"We call on the Kenyan authorities to release him immediately and allow Somali journalists in Kenya to do their media without intimidations”.