I guess with the space cutbacks, we won't be getting as much Gett (as in Jeffrey Gettleman) from the Times.
They rely on the wires more. Pffffffttttt!
"2 More Somali Journalists Killed in Capital....
MOGADISHU, Somalia, Aug. 11 (Reuters) — Two respected Somali journalists were killed Saturday in Mogadishu, the first shot dead outside his office and the other fatally wounded in a blast as he drove back from his colleague’s funeral.
[Yup, thousands killed since we overthrew the Islamists who ran out our CIA-supported thugs, but the papers only "report" Somalia when there are missiles at "Al-CIA-Duh" or reporters killed!
The International Herald Tribune is the New York Times, so what they hey, Amurkn reader?]
Associates of the two, who worked for the HornAfrik news organization, expressed outrage, saying the killings were part of a deliberate campaign against the news media, without specifying who they believed to be behind the deaths. HornAfrik, one of the biggest private media outlets in Somalia, was criticized by the Islamists during their six-month rule of Mogadishu last year, and then by the Ethiopian-backed government that took over and has been battling the Islamist insurgency.
[Yup, no mention of OUR ROLE in tossing over a peaceful government!
And WHO wouldn't want them reporting government abuses now? Pfffffttt!]
The National Union of Somali Journalists said:
“This wave of killing and injuring media people is an intentionally organized mission to silence journalistic voices in Somalia. We are entirely appalled by these acts.”
In the first attack, a popular talk show host, Mahad Ahmed Elmi, was shot four times in the head at close range as he neared the door of his office at 7:15 a.m., colleagues said.
A colleague, too terrified to reveal his name, said at the hospital where Mr. Elmi’s body lay:
“We were outside when four gunmen jumped out. They fired four shots against Mahad’s head. Then they just fled.”
Later, the founder and co-owner of HornAfrik — Ali Iman Sharmarke — died when his four-wheel drive vehicle hit an explosive device in the road as he returned from Mr. Elmi’s funeral.
A Reuters journalist, Sahal Abdulle, sitting behind Mr. Sharmarke was wounded in the head and face.
“We heard a huge, huge explosion. There was smoke everywhere. Ali was a good friend. He was committed to getting the truth out. He came back from Canada to promote democracy and give Somalis a voice. Today, he paid the ultimate price.”
The journalists’ union charged that the vehicle was a target.
Another journalist, Abdihakin Omar Jimale of Radio Mogadishu, was wounded in a gun attack on Friday, the union said, adding that the bullet had struck him in the shoulder.
The rights group Reporters Without Borders called for the government to urgently protect journalists. It said in a statement on the killings on Saturday:
“Somalia is already this year the most deadly country in Africa for the media.”
The union said six local journalists had been killed in 2007.
