Radio
is greatest source of information in Somalia
Hana
Ismail Muse
Somaliland
The main
challenges in Somaliland till now was recovering from the impact
of state collapse in 1991 and the ongoing instability in many
parts of the country. There have been no news radio stations in
the Republic of Somaliland except the only state-run station,
Radio Hargeisa, which was established by the British.
The Republic of
Somaliland is refusing to license private station, on the basis
that they might be used as a vehicle for clan group propaganda.
There are now
three TV stations in Somaliland and of the three only the
Somaliland National Television station is state-owned. The
revenues that come in from the TV stations are generated by
advertisements for telecommunication, import and export
companies, etc. but the main problem that are facing the TV
stations are lack of funding, which is the same dilemma that the
newspapers are facing. The majority of the Somaliland population
being a low income household makes it difficult for most people
to be able to afford buying a paper everyday. Other issues
facing the newspaper media is the lack of modern production like
modern printing press. The greatest media source of information
in Somaliland is the radio due to the low literacy rate.
Mass media has
many issues to cover in many areas: education, business,
health care, politics, etc. and most of them are very
interesting to the community at large. The Somaliland people are
a very unique people. Regardless of the low literacy rate in the
country if you ask anyone on the street of the happenings around
the world everyone will not only know of what might have
happened in the remotest regions of the world but would be more
than willing to share any titbits with you. This is due to the
oral culture of the Somali people. So even if the media outlets
can only reach a limited people the information would be
disseminated via word of mouth.
Somaliland is also
unique in the sense that pretty much every country in the world
has some Somali presence. This gives the Somaliland community
incentive to find out about what is happening in the areas their
families might be at.
It seems that the
media currently gives its priority to the politics issues, it
needs to sensitise the people about the importance of peace and
how they have to protect it.
But recently, the
media also serve the public in the improvement of education and
in the fight against diseases such as: AIDS, Malaria and
tuberculosis, and for better answers to the public, I think it
tried to train on health issues so that the information
regarding health will be available in the media.
I believe that the
media should give priority to political issues simply because of
the fact that Somaliland is in political turmoil. We are at the
brink of war and this is a nation that comes from a long history
of political upheaval and the Somaliland media has to understand
that the existence and development of its media is imperative in
interpreting freedom of expression and democracy, so that its
media can play a pivotal role in protecting fundamental human
rights.