On Saturday, the Somali government warned that it would tighten down on media outlets that it deemed were disseminating propaganda for the Al-Shabab organisation.
The statement comes as the Somali military forces are engaged in a ferocious offensive against the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabab, supported by regional militias and international partners.
“I want to inform the Somali media and all Somalis in general that we would consider the propaganda coverage of Al-Shabab, including its terrorist deeds and ideology, as crimes punishable by law,” said Abdirahman Yusuf, the deputy minister of information.
In a press conference with journalists, he continued, “The Somali government will entirely restrict all sorts of coverage related to terrorist ideology and actions of intimidation” by Al-Shabaab.
Youssef brought up the government’s cyber operations against “terrorist accounts” on social media and the suspension of more than 40 accounts on Facebook and Twitter.
After a political crisis, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the president of Somalia, was elected in the middle of May. He has vowed to fight “all-out war” against the group.
On September 12, the president declared that the organisation would be the target of upcoming attacks and urged locals to “leave” from the areas they were in charge of.
Although the terrorist group’s forces were driven out of the Somali capital of Mogadishu in 2011, they still carry out assaults against civilian, military, and governmental targets.
Mogadishu: Spreading Al-Shabab propaganda is considered a terrorist crime that is illegal.
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