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Abstract
Somaliland has held several competitive and multiparty elections that have been cited by international election monitors as being “free and fair.” While political competition has been tolerated, or even encouraged by the governments in power, there has been a continued reluctance to allow private radio stations. Citing the possibility of destabilizing Somaliland's delicate peace, arguments against the liberalization of the media include concerns of radios used to further political polarization, mobilize groups to escalate simmering conflicts and violence, and the capacity of the government to regulate media outlets. This article locates these arguments against media liberalization in the context of Somaliland's larger nation- and state-building project suggesting that in transitions from war to peace, no matter how prolonged, there are very real concerns about processes of institutionalization and the sequencing of democratic reforms.
Notes
1. Walls and Kibble, Somaliland: Change and Continuity.
2. AFP, “Somaliland Election Free and Fair”; International Republican Institute, Somaliland September 29, 2005 Parliamentary Election Assessment Report.
3. Ismail, “Diaspora and Post-War Political Leadership,” 16.
4. Star Radio, for example, which is owned by a Somali-Kenyan headquartered in Nairobi Kenya, with satellite offices in south Somalia and northern Kenya, tried to open an office in Hargeysa arguing that it was an “international station,” but it was unsuccessful in persuading the Somaliland authorities. Interview with Mohamed Osman, Nairobi Kenya, September 2012.
5. Somaliland Law Website, “Broadcasting Law.” http://www.somalilandlaw.com/broadcasting__law.html/. They have also been influential in shaping the drafting and passage of media laws. They have been credited with influencing the content and passage of the 2004 Press Law that is based on codes of conduct and does not have any criminal provisions, providing significantly more liberal and favorable conditions for journalists than the government had intended. The government has been actively seeking to replace this law, but it has met intense resistance from journalists.
6. “Somaliland Government Bans Privately-Owned Radio Stations,” June 14, 2002. http://www.ifex.org/somalia/2002/06/14/somaliland_government_bans_privately/.
7. Howard, Media + Elections; Frere, Elections and the Media.
8. Lewis, Pastoral Democracy.
9. Lewis, Pastoral Democracy, 94.
10. Ducaale, “Role of the Media in Political Reconstruction.”
11. Somaliland claims the territory of British Somaliland, but significant parts of eastern Somaliland are contested as neighboring Puntland claims territory in the Sool and Sanag provinces. Additionally, the Awdal region in western Somaliland has resisted Somaliland's secessionist agenda, and declared that it is an autonomous region in a Federal Somalia. Even in the capital Hargeysa, a minority resist Somaliland statehood. In an effort to recognize the disputed identities and territorial claims, this article refers to “the people of Somaliland” rather than “Somalilanders.”
12. Bryden, “Banana Test.”
13. As discussed by Collier, War, Guns and Votes, while prescribed by international actors and often demanded by an increasingly globally connected and informed citizenry as part of a transition process or post-war settlement, a post-conflict election may actually increase the likelihood of renewed violence. As Collier argued, “in the year before the election the risk of going back to violence is very sharply reduced: the society looks to have reached safety. But in the year after the election the risk explodes upward. The net effect of the election is to make the society more dangerous” (81).
14. Lunn, “Power of Justice, Justice as Power.”
15. Lunn, “Power of Justice, Justice as Power.”
16. Academy for Peace and Development (APD), Rebuilding Somaliland, 16.
17. International Republican Institute, Election Watch.
18. Hoehne, “Mimesis and Mimicry in Dynamics of State and Identity Formation”.
19. This debate is captured in the debate between Bestman and Lewis; Besteman, “Representing Violence and ‘Othering’ Somalia” and Lewis “Doing Violence to Ethnography.”
20. IREX, Somaliland Media Sustainability Index 2010, 361.
21. Interviews with Hargeysa including Former Minister of Information, Duale. Also see NUSOJ, Report on Somaliland.
22. While this statement conveys the extremity of the situation in Rwanda. It is an exaggeration as the genocide occurred over several months and most estimates of the death toll are around 800,000 persons.
23. As quoted in Ducaale, “Role of the Media in Political Reconstruction,” 13.
24. Academy for Peace and Development (APD), Rebuilding Somaliland, 19.
25. Academy for Peace and Development (APD), Rebuilding Somaliland, 21.
26. Sheik-Abdi, “Ideology and Leadership in Somalia,” 168.
27. Interview with Yusuf Gabobe.
28. Radio Hargeysa has continued to be influenced by the culture and approach of journalists trained in the former USSR and, while seldom provocative or inflammatory, the station is notoriously dull. Its reach remains limited, with little access beyond the capital; another justification for those urging the provision of private stations.
29. Bennett and Woldemariam, “Navigating a Broken Transition to Civilian Rule.”
30. Hoehne, “Newspapers in Hargeysa,” 98.
31. Radio Daljir, the largest radio station in Puntland, claims that through its network of seven transmitters, broadcasts can be heard in parts of Somaliland and even reach Ethiopia and Yemen. Radio Badhan, which broadcasts from the portion of the disputed Sanaag region that is currently under the government of Puntland's control, reflects the interests of the Warsangeli; Infoasaid. Somalia: Media and Telecoms Landscape Guide, 41, 49, respectively.
32. BBC Monitoring Africa, Somalia Media Guide, 2.
33. For more sympathetic assessments, see Borchini and Borstelmann, “Psyop in Somalia”; Efird et al., Using the Information Instrument to Leverage Military Force. More recently, the African Union (AU) and United Nations Mission in Somalia have established a UN-funded radio station, Radio Barkulan, which is based in Nairobi and broadcasts news and entertainment programming to south Somalia. This station was established in 2010, several years after the arrival of AU troops to support the TFG and the ongoing constitution-making process. Additional support from the international community has been provided to the TFG's Radio Mogadishu. The increasing involvement in the media on the part of the international community parallels deeper engagement in political and military processes as well.
34. Hyden et al., Media and Democracy in Africa, 88.
35. Amnesty International, “Journalists Under Attack in Somalia.”
36. Infoasaid. Somalia: Media and Telecoms Landscape Guide.
37. Interview with the Somaliland Electoral Commission.
38. Anderson and Lochery, “Violence and Exodus in Kenya's Rift Valley.”
39. Osman, “Somali Journalists are Dying from Corruption.”
40. Osman, “Somali Journalists are Dying from Corruption.”
41. Osman, “Somali Journalists are Dying from Corruption.”
43. “Somalia: Journalists Protest Against an Article Published by the Guardian Newspaper.” October 19, 2012. Raxanreeb.com. http://www.raxanreeb.com/2012/10/somalia-journalists-protest-against-an-article-published-by-the-guardian-newspaper/.
44. Issa-Salwe, “Internet and the Somali Diaspora.”
45. According to the Somaliland Ministry of Education, as quoted in IRIN, “Somalia: Healthcare, Education Gains.”
46. Draft Somaliland National Development Plan (NDP), 2012–2016, 127.
47. These estimates were given to the author during interviews with printers in Hargeysa.
48. Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), “Somaliland: 7 Journalists Arrested in a Week.”
49. For an excellent overview of the relationship between SNM veterans and the press, see Hoehne, “Newspapers in Hargeysa.”
50. Interview with Yusuf Gabobe.
51. Hoehne, “Newspapers in Hargeysa.”
52. Interview with Abdiweli Farah Jambiir.
53. Interview with a journalist in Hargeysa.
54. Stremlau et al., “Role of Media in the Upcoming Somaliland Elections.”
55. IRIN, ‘Kenya: Spreading the Word of Hate.’
56. “Only Genuine Reforms Will Save Us from More Violence.”
57. Anderson and Lochery, “Violence and Exodus in Kenya's Rift Valley,” 328.
58. Interview with Samuel Muhunyu.
59. The only stations broadcasting on terrestrial are the government-owned Somaliland National Television (SLNTV) and the private Somaliland Television (SLTV). There is also a cable television station: Hargeysa Cable.
60. Draft Somaliland National Development Plan (NDP) 2012–2016, October 2011, 131.