Fahad Yasin hosts Qatar’s deputy spy chief secretly, wants opposition denied coverage

Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 08:21 am

A storm is brewing in Mogadishu which could put the Federal Government and the opposition at loggerheads and probable check the integrity of a free media, Garowe Online reports.

At the center of the latest intrigues is the Director of National Intelligence and Security Agency Fahad Yasin Dahir, who secretly held a meeting with media managers and editors on Tuesday night.

The ultimate Tuesday’s night meeting was once prepared through the Director of Communications at the workplace of the president, Abdinur Mohamed Ahmed, additionally a former journalist, it has now emerged.

Initially, the media group was informed that they were to meet the minister for information, solely to find the secret agent chief waiting in the corridor the place they had been summoned to.

“Our mobile phones and cameras were accumulated earlier than the meeting started.

We have been instructed that the discussions will be off-the-record,” a director who attended spoke in confidence, including that “To our shock, the Director of NISA entered the meeting hall.”

The undercover agent chief reportedly asked the media to be ‘favorable’ to the government by censoring positive essential information, a move believed to be a method to gag the media.

Instructively, the undercover agent chief insisted that the media must focal point on the positives, an indirect warning to journalists who execute their watchdog roles via making the authorities accountable through investigative reporting.

“He gave us a message that we had been supposed to be phase of the gadget no longer in opposition to it.

Nobody could question him or say no to him,” “We are now not sure how we can continue working as an impartial media in Mogadishu.

I now concern for the safety of my journalists and my media,” a radio editor expressed fears after the secret meeting.

Also focused in the modern warning from the spy chief is the an increasing number of robust opposition team.

The media group was asked to ‘reduce insurance on the opposition activities’.

The move, the spy chief reportedly said, would allow the authorities to focus on turning in to the public besides always getting ‘distracted by using the opposition’.

Media independence in Somalia has turn out to be a difficulty of debate in recent weeks with dozens of journalists getting harassed, arbitrarily arrested and some tortures below uncertain circumstances.

Two days after the secret meeting, the opposition team unveiled manifesto underneath the umbrella of Forum for National Parties (FNP) underneath the management of former President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.

Somalia will be electing new MPs and President after the time period of the present day parliament expires in October 2020.

President Mohamed Farmajo who is portrayed as a divisive figure by using his critics will be in search of a 2d term In a assertion on Thursday, the FNP wondered the Federal Government’s alleged violation of human rights and unwarranted witch-hunt concentrated on regime critics.

“This is a step to the right route that will make contributions to the technique of political democratization of Somalia with a intention of safeguarding the country’s integrity,” read the statement.

(Garoweonline)