The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has won a prestigious international press freedom award, the first ever international prize for a journalists’ organization in the history of Somalia’s defense of press freedom.
The Reporters Without Borders - Fondation de France International Press Freedom Defender Award is an exemplary recognition of the union’s tenacious fight to defend the international principle of press freedom in a country ravaged by internal warfare, which has gone almost 15 years without effective government or law enforcement bodies.
Press freedom is highly imperilled in Somalia by armed thugs and repressive regional authorities who are seeking to gain control of the country’s various territories. Murderous warlords, who are battling to rule the country, increasingly use confrontations with rival warlords as justification for infringing the freedom and rights of journalists.
Accepting the award at a ceremony in Paris last night, NUSOJ Secretary General Omar Faruk Osman said “I would like to thank Reporters Without Borders and Fondation de France for honouring the National Union of Somali Journalists with this celebrated international Press Freedom Defender Award. I hope it will have a momentous impact on the current state of freedom of the press and expression in our war-wracked country”.
Omar Faruk Osman said in his acceptance speech that NUSOJ had in 2005 alone monitored, investigated and reported on more than 15 cases of murdered reporters, detained journalists, suspended media institutions, censored media houses and constant intimidation against media professionals. “Journalists are abused because of what they write, say or what they bring into the open – information that someone else wants to stay hidden”, he added.
In the past four years, NUSOJ, which was formerly known as SOJON, began posing problems for the perpetrators of these violations. “Our work involves monitoring, revealing the names of perpetrators, protesting and taking action against these violations” Osman said.
The secretary general, who was ccompanied by the chairman of NUSOJ’s supreme council, Mohammed Barre Haji, said “We have been encouraged in our work by a growing number of media professionals and institutions seeking to secure the public’s right to know. I want to express my appreciation to my fellow men and women in this great union who work towards the realisation of this goal”.
“Our sole aim and pledge is to continue our efforts for the respect, protection and upholding of press freedom in Somalia. This prize is for all Somali journalists, and I have the honour of receiving it on their behalf”.
NUSOJ has earned a reputation for exposing press freedom infringements promptly and accurately, campaigning against repression of open journalism, acting to obtain the release of detained journalists and advocating journalists’ rights. NUSOJ, as an independent body, has become the official resistance to the perpetrators of local press
freedom violations.
The union has achieved its standing as a respected and reliable source on local press freedom matters thanks to a team of 25 well trained press freedom protectors (PFPs) based in almost every part of the country. They provide precise and prompt information from their respective regions, act as representatives to communicate with the local authorities and the national union and organise press freedom campaigns. .
The NUSOJ, which is a trade union organisation that also deals with professional issues, is the first ever independent union for Somali journalists since the birth of Somalia. From a membership of just 21 when it was established, the organisation now boasts more than 200 members out of the country’s nearly 300 media professionals.
NUSOJ is awarded this prize by a jury of 33 members from Afghanistan, Argentina, ustria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Burma, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, France, Germany, Pakistan, Peru, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, United States and Venezuela.
The organisation was set up in 2002, after a draconian media law was submitted to the former transitional national assembly (TNA) by the former transnational national government (TNG), to respond to the serious personal danger it represented to journalists and the urgent need to bring Somali journalists together. Since 2002 it has succeeded in reducing many of the most serious obstacles to press freedom in most parts of the country.
