Mogadishu (SD) – National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) filed a complaint at Benadir regional court demanding that the National Attorney General’s Office to investigate the killings of more than 50 journalists in Somalia.

NUSOJ Secretary General Omar Faruk Osman said that Somalia could not address the threats against journalists and the free press unless they launch a real and immediate investigation into those who committed the brutal murders of journalists and bring them to justice.

“We believe that Somalia cannot overcome the oppressive practices against its own journalists that have resulted the entrenchment of the culture of impunity without conducting an effective, speedy and adequate investigations to uncover the truth and seek justice for murdered journalists,” said Omar Faruk Osman, NUSOJ Secretary General.

“Our sole aim is the Court and the Attorney General to try and punish the material and intellectual authors of journalists’ killings”.

In their request, NUSOJ said that the killing of journalists was not only a violation of international human rights law but also a repeated violation of Somalia’s provisional constitution, especially Article 13, which guarantees the right to life and article 18 for freedom of expression.

“Through this court application, we are not only challenging impunity but we also want to advance simultaneously the road to justice and the road to the clarification of the truth, to which the victim journalists and their families and Somali people as a whole are entitled” added Osman.

NUSOJ said the Somali people have a right not to be deprived of the truth of what happened, as well as the causes and circumstances of non-punishable crimes such as the killing of journalists.