TAKING
POINT BY
M.M. AFRAH
Toronto (Canada)
15, FEB. 2003
BAD NEWS, GOOD
NEWS - A POST - MORTEM TALKING POINT |
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| Email: afrah95@hotmail.com
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M. M.
Afrah |
If you think
you don’t want to read any more about Somalia, you are
wrong. There are, of course, bad news and commentaries from
Somalia in the Western media, with Somali news gatherers and
editorial writers (including yours truly), with few
exceptions, rallying around the flag or jumping on the
bandwagon.
Critical
post-mortem, muted in the beginning, seems to be gathering
steam. North American media, shell shocked by the September 11
event and the war against Iraq, lost their ability to report
impartiality, thus greatly tarnishing their credibility.
The organization “Fairness and
Accuracy in Reporting” (FAIR), a major critic of mainstream
media in America, found the coverage in the first few days
acceptable. But when George W. Bush called a “war on
terrorism” and “axis of evil” speeches, FAIR observed a
change in tone and content on American TV networks, continuing
to focus on Somalia, among other countries, as a haven for
Osama and his Al-Qaeda network, ignoring the bitter truth that
no Somali national was among those people who slammed the
commercial airliners on the twin towers of the World Trade
Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, DC.
In the heat of the moment a Somali
cartoonist drew a cartoon of Osama bin Laden in one of the
neophyte but vibrant newspapers in Mogadishu with the
following caption:
“You’re wasting your time, Osama.
The Mooryaan got here before you!”
(The word Mooryaan was added to the
Somali parlance during the civil/clan wars and roughly means
predators or homegrown terrorists, more lethal than the
international terrorists.)
Another cartoon illustrating the talks
in Eldoret quips:
“Just because they’re having
silly old talks doesn’t mean there’ll be no more clan
wars.”
Interestingly enough, these journalists
in war-torn Somalia did not miss the train, despite being
bullied and harassed by all sides in the conflict, with guns
blazing. They cry for professionalism and independence—not
clan propaganda and censorship attempts by the TNG. They
continued to hold the torch of a free press even higher and
simultaneously threatened to cease broadcasts and stop the
printing presses if the TNG goes ahead with its draconian
censorship legislation.
But the battle is not over yet.
Journalists who report the antics of certain warlords and
their cahoots face the barrel of the gun. Several journalists
have been threatened, beaten or murdered by gunmen loyal to
the powerful warlords and the big merchants.
In his investigative report, a young
journalist had listed the names of the big merchants who
paralyzed the meager economy of the country by flooding the
markets with billions of fake currency. The editor of the
paper was physically assaulted by gunmen loyal to the big
merchants and left him for dead, and the young journalist is
still in hiding after more than a year and half.
“The giant Western media have been
demonizing Somalia ever since the Americans pulled out in
1993/94 and we are trying to spotlight our problems by
bringing international attention to them,” said a member of
the fledging Somali Journalists Association in Mogadishu.
“We also need the Somali Diaspora to
play their part,” he added.
Big Kudos to those brave souls!
Close to my adopted country, the daily
Bush v. Iraq report is taking the center stage in the media
these days and I am wondering whatever is happening with the
“War on Terrorism”. But asking that question could be
unpatriotic. So I’ll stick to the unending sticky Somali
tragedy, hoping against hope that the world would eventually
listen to us.
M.M. Afrah
© 2003
Email: afrah95@hotmail.com
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Mr. Afrah is an outspoken Author/Journalist and
a member of the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
(CJFE) and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists
(CPJ). He contributes hard-hitting articles to Canadian and
international newspapers and magazines on the Somalia
situation "through the eyes of a man who covered the country
for more than two decades".
Many of us remember his critical articles in his
weekly English language HEEGAN newspaper, despite a mandatory
self-censorship introduced by Guddiga Baarista Hisbiga Xisbiga
Hantiwadaagga Somaaliyeed in 1984 and the dreaded NSS. I am
very proud to know that Mr. Afrah openly defied the draconian
censorship laws and went ahead to write what he thought was
wrong in the country. He received several death threats from
the warlords and was briefly held hostage by gunmen in 1993.
But he remained defiant and continued to send his stories of
carnage and destruction to Reuters news agency. He still is!
info@banadir.com
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