(SomaliNet) Somalia’s U.S. and Ethiopian-backed government has forced three prominent private radio stations off the air since Monday over their coverage of the bloody conflict centered in Mogadishu, according to news reports and local journalists. In a press conference today, Mogadishu Mayor Mohamed “Dheere” Omar Habeeb accused the private stations Radio Banadir and Radio Simba of coverage undermining the government, according to local journalists. The closures come as government forces backed by the Ethiopian military, were pursuing suspected Islamic insurgents in city neighborhoods.
The mayorÂ’s statements came a few hours after Somali government troops led by agents of SomaliaÂ’s National Security Agency stormed the studios of Radio Banadir and Radio Simba, dispersing staffers, and ordering the stations to stop broadcasting until further notice, according to the same sources. Ethiopian troops later occupied the building housing the studios of Radio Simba, according to the stationÂ’s chief editor, Mustafa Haji.
Dheere accused Radio Simba of inciting antigovernment sentiment in a Sunday interview in which a spokesman for MogadishuÂ’s dominant Hawiya clan protested the arrest of clan elder Ahmed Dirye, Haji told CPJ. The mayor accused Radio Banadir of disseminating false news in reporting that mortar shells had landed in and around the presidential palace on Monday night, according to Abdirashid Abdullahi Haydar, an official with the National Union of Somali Journalists.
TodayÂ’s closures followed MondayÂ’s forced shutdown of Radio Shabelle, a leading independent station broadcasting from MogadishuÂ’s main Bakara market, a suspected insurgent stronghold and the scene of house-to-house security sweeps.