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MEDIA
Overview
Somaliland’s media sector presents a complex and contradictory picture. International
observers often see the sector as lively and vibrant, in great part due to the wide number of print
and web outlets, many of them in English and run by the diaspora. Local media stakeholders
take pride in the sector’s relative strength, particularly when compared to other areas: South
Central Somalia is one of the world’s most dangerous places to be a journalist, with at least 18
reporters killed over 2012.
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Deeper examination of the media sector – particularly when
looking past a more narrow focus on output – reveals a more problematic landscape, and one
that faces threats to its basic freedom to operate.
Most local media stakeholders participating in the media workshop and interviewed identified
the lack of journalism education/training and poor professionalism as leading concerns, with
some reluctant to raise or discuss larger issues. This reluctance may stem in part from an
expectation of journalists to be “patriotic,” as expressed by some government-affiliated media,
or out of fatigue from failing to achieve other goals, such as the licensing of private radio, as
quietly expressed by one independent voice. It was suspected by interviewees that government
fear of the power of media and its destabilizing potential in part drives its efforts to control the
airwaves and its occasional tendency to harass journalists and close outlets. Low literacy
levels,
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insufficient broadcasting infrastructure, inadequate print distribution and an over-
emphasis on political reporting further leave the Somaliland public with limited access to
objective information on the broad variety of topics they need in order to make sound decisions
in their daily lives.
Despite its plethora of challenges, the media sector in Somaliland appears to have received
among the least amount of donor attention compared with other sectors in the field of
democracy and governance, though many donors now seem to agree with the importance of
raising media issues higher on the agenda. In contrast to civil society – which has received
significant donor resources but has not been the subject of analytical studies – there is growing
literature on the media sector (though often as part of research on Somalia as a whole).
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"Timeline: Somali Journalists Killed in 2012."
Sabahi
. N.p., 12 Oct. 2012. Web.
>.
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There are no accurate figures on literacy. According to a 2010 report on the
Millennium Challenge Goals in
Somalia
, in 1999 the literacy rate of the population aged 15 years and above was 26.9 percent in 1999, with female
literacy half of male literacy. Media and other sources suggest the overall figure may have risen to over 40 percent
since then:
anniversary
.
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See, for example, BBC, “Analysis of the Somali Media Environment,”
Infoasaid,
“Somalia Media and Telecoms Landscape Guide,”
_-
_final_version_updated_090312_20.12.12.pdf
; IREX, “Media Sustainability Index,”
Many Somaliland media themselves also cover media
issues regularly.
