Remembering journalist Salad Osman Sagal, killed in Mogadishu — Somalia

We, at the Coalition For Women In Journalism are spending some time today, remembering Somali journalist Salad Osman Sagal who was killed back in 2016 in Somalia. Today, we are honoring her work and her memory.

Osman was a student at Plasma University, where she was studying computer science.

She worked as a presenter and producer at a state-run radio called Radio Mogadishu and was also a broadcaster for Somali National Television. Salad produced a children’s program for the radio station.

The 24-year-old journalist was gunned down in Mogadishu on 5 June 2016.

No organization claimed her murder, but it had all the hallmarks of yet another targeted killing by Al-Shabaab, an Islamist rebel militia that has slain many journalists in Somalia.

The young student and journalist was leaving her university campus in the Hodan neighborhood of Mogadishu when three gunmen shot her down.

Militants have a history of targeting journalists for Radio Mogadishu and other state media, according to CPJ research. Women in public roles in particular have been targeted, the Strategic Initiative for women in the Horn of Africa found in a 2016 report.

She was the second female journalist to be killed in Somalia within a year. In December 2015, Hindiyo Haji Mohamed (27 years old) died after a bomb planted under her car went off.

Since 1992, there has been more than 60 journalists murdered in Somalia. The deadliest year by far for journalist in Somalia was in 2012 when 18 media workers were killed. Between the years 2007 and 2015, about 45 Somali journalists were killed.

Unfortunately many of the attacks, and threats women journalists face here go unreported. Often due to lack of attention and importance towards issue women journalists face here. This make the environment more unreliable and needs to change.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism urges urge journalists unions and support organizations to effectively document the violence women journalists face in the country. We also urge Somalian authorities to take steps to improve safety for women journalists working in the country.