MOGADISHU (AFP) — The mayor of Mogadishu on Saturday spurned pleas by three radio stations to resume broadcasting, a fortnight after they were pulled off air for allegedly fanning insurgency, radio managers said.
The Somali authorities mid-November ordered Radio Simba, Radio Banadir and Radio Shabelle to halt operations in the volatile seaside capital.
In order to resume business, the radios must sign a decree by mayor Mohamed Omar Habeb which bans the reporting of "military operations" without permission, interviewing "government opponents" and covering the refugee exodus from the capital.
Radio managers said Habeb rejected their attempt to reverse the order during a meeting Saturday.
"The mayor insisted his decision must be implemented. (The) radio stations are still silent and I am afraid other stations might also go silent if they don't sign the document," Shabelle chief Muktar Mohamed told AFP.
"We could not sign a statement that paralyses the independence of the media."
"We are losing hope day by day," added Radio Simba head Abdullahi Atosh.
The mayor said that six other radio stations and one television channel also refusing to sign the decree would shortly be pulled off air.
Media watchdogs have roundly condemned Habeb for the decree that piles pressure on media in a country ranked as the second-deadliest worldwide for journalists.
Meanwhile, new Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein conceded in an interview with Kenyan television that he faced a challenge in forming a government to represent a broad array of the country's feuding clans.
The 69-year-old was sworn in on November 24 to replace Ali Mohamed Gedi, who resigned after a long-running power struggle with President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.
Hussein told Nation TV that naming a new cabinet was posing a challenge because he had to follow a fragile formula of appointing ministers from four major clans and one minor one, according to the constitution.
Bloody clan conflict and power struggles that erupted after the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre have scuppered numerous initiatives to restore national stability.
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