Hargeisa (SD) – The Somaliland Journalists Association SOLJA’s 7th controversial conference opened this morning at the Ambassador Hotel in Hargeisa.

This year’s SOLJA conference is surrounded by governmental interference, leading to division among the Somaliland journalists.

The conference was scheduled to open this morning in Hargeisa but was postponed for few hours, due to the absence of journalists who are boycotting the conference.

Somaliland presidential election adviser Abdullahi Mohamed Dahir (Cukuse), a former journalist himself tried to persuade journalists to attend the conference, but journalist insisted on their decision to boycott the SOLJA conference.

Former SOLJA leadership resigned due to some joining politics while others moved on to pursue other employment opportunities, creating a leadership vacuum.

Sources with knowledge of the matter, tell somalidispatch.com, the selection for the new SOLJA leadership is a foregone conclusion, with the selection of a pro-government leadership lined up to take the reins of the organization.

Somaliland journalists have previously declared that they will never attend what they called a hijacked conference and will decide their own destiny.