Islamist group orders closure of Somali TV offices

Moalin Hashi Mohammed, a senior official with Hezbul Islam, said the popular TV channel showed its viewers cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a part of a news report over the weekend.

He threatened that his fighters would launch an attack if the TV channel did not close immediately its offices in Mogadishu as well as in Hargeisa, the capital of the self-proclaimed Republic of Somaliland in northwest Somalia, and in Bossaso, the commercial capital of the semi-autonomous Puntland region in northeast Somalia.

The official also warned reporters from the Somali TV channel in Somalia not to file any reports for the TV station, saying that would equate them with the cartoonist who drew the images depicting the Prophet Mohammed, which angered Muslims all over the world.

The Hezbul Islam threat to the Somali satellite TV Channel came a day after the other radical group of Al Shabaab issued a statement condemning the TV's report depicting the Prophet Mohammed in cartoon and announcing that the movement was cutting all relationship with the TV Channel until it withdrew the report and "repent for its sin".

The TV station had since issued a statement apologizing for "the mistake," promising that such reports would not air on the TV again.

However, Hezbul Islam said in its latest statement that such a apology was not enough.

The Islamist movements that control much of south and central Somalia have banned the airing of music on radio stations in Mogadishu and relaying of programs of the British Broadcasting Cooperation (BBC) and the Voice of America (VOA).

International media consider Somalia, where almost 10 journalists were killed and more than 20 others wounded last year, as one of the worst countries in the world for journalists to work, Kazinform cites Xinhua. See www.xinhuanet.com for full version.