Published by participants in the  Certificate in Journalism program

of the African Virtual University-Indiana University of Pennsylvania Partnership.

The African Star

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Pictures (Somaliland)

Thanks for freedom of press..but give reporters  more skills and pay, too

A veteran journalist says  journalists need skills and better pay in order to fully enjoy freedom of the press.

Mohammed Hassan Ali “waji”   said to be a journalist in Somaliland is  to stay poor.

Waji who served under the regime of Siad Barre said the constraints on freedom for the press and  human rights abuses under Barre were a daily event.

Freedom of speech is an important  human right.

Waji says 13 years later freedom of speech in Somaliland is enjoyed more than ever before, but as usual, much remains to be done.

Recalling the years he practiced journalism under the Siad Barre regime and the situation of journalism  since 1975,smiles and says,

“There are more newspapers now than when I started”.

Like other countries the constitution provides for  the freedom of speech. However journalists also must have the necessary skills in the field, Waji said.  

“Some journalists in Somaliland abuse their power not intentionally but because of lack of knowledge and experience”.

Somaliland Journalists Association {SOLJA} was  recently formed to promote the interests of  journalists.Waji is  an official in the organization. He said  SOLJA “has not  achieved much.”

But its formation  gives journalists hope. SOLJA has helped release of two journalists from prison, he said.

Waji  called for the organization to lobby for journalists’ rights and, in particular, to get good pay.While  Somaliland is in the information society and has enjoyed the media coverage  the rural population has not.

  Radio coverage has been promised for about  70 percent of nomadic population who do not  have access to any local means of information.

Waji said the new radio is part of government’s effort to reach the rural population ahead of the parliamentary elections. Radio is the most effective means of information dissemination to the masses in Africa.

But Waji predicts that radio will be of little impact to the rural population. “The  language which the radio speaks now is not the language of the rural population. It is as it used to be before; we speak the language of the urban,” he said.