Two journalists have been jailed and fined in Somaliland for allegedly libelling the country's president and foreign diplomats. Hassan Hussein Abdullahi, editor of the daily newspaper Hubaal, was sentenced to two years. The paper's manager, Mohamed Ahmed Jama, got a one-year term.
They were convicted of defamation and publishing false news in relation to two articles. The first, published in January, accused Ethiopian diplomats of smuggling drugs. The second, published in June, reported that Somaliland president Ahmed Mahmud Silanyo was in poor health.
The paper's publishing company, Hubaal Media Group, was closed by court order on 11 June. It has resulted in the non-publication of Hubaal and its English-language weekly stablemate, The Independent.
The closure and the jailings have been condemned by the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) and by the Paris-based press freedom watchdog, Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
NUSOJ secretary general Omar Faruk Osman, said: "This is an act designed to intimidate the media in Somaliland and discourage them from being critical."
An RSF statement said: "These sentences by Somaliland's judicial authorities violate the region's legislation, which stipulates that media offences must be tried before a civil court, not a criminal one."
Abdullahi and Jama, who were taken to prison in the capital, Hargeisa, are expected to appeal.
