""We saw them as a danger to security..."

Once again, Somalia's expanding Islamist movement has shut down a radio station:

Islamist gunmen who captured the Somali port of Kismayo have forcibly closed a private broadcaster which they accuse of distorting news about protests against the takeover, journalists said on Friday.

Islamist fighters on battle-wagons turned up at HornAfrik Radio's Kismayo offices late on Thursday, ordering staff to stop operations, the National Union of Somali Journalists said.

[...]

HornAfrik's Kismayo station director, Ahmed Mohamed, said three of his reporters had been briefly detained on Friday.

"Three of our reporters were arrested this morning. I had to flee last night to avoid arrest," Mohamed told Reuters by telephone. "They say we reported false information on the recent protests and of having links with the former administration."

But he denied the station had relations with the Juba Valley Alliance, an independent authority which controlled the region around Somalia's third largest city before Islamists took over.


The Islamists claim that HornAfrik will be allowed back on the air once it stops reporting "false" news; i.e., news that reflects poorly on the Islamists. Sadly, this is yet another small but disturbing sign of what they have in store for Somalia.