Congo-Kinshasa
Somali journalists face death threats, kidnappings
 Islamist insurgents blindfolded journalist Ibrahim Mohamed Hussein, tied his hands behind his back and ordered him to face Mecca. Then a man put a knife to his throat.
A last-second phone call spared Hussein's life. His family had paid an $18,000 ransom. After the attack he fled to Uganda, leaving behind his wife and three children.
"I'm the luckiest person in the world. I sometimes feel like I'm in a dream," Hussein said of last year's escape. "I don't think there is someone whose throat was put, like mine, to a sharp knife and survived, especially in Somalia."
Hussein is part of an exodus of African journalists who have fled dangerous conditions in their home countries, according to a report last week by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
African reporters are fleeing their home countries after being assaulted, threatened or imprisoned _ often by militants, sometimes even by the government _ an exodus that leaves a deep void in professional reporting.
"The starkest examples are in the Horn of Africa nations of Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea, where dozens of journalists have been forced into exile," said CPJ's Africa Program coordinator Tom Rhodes. "Zimbabwe, Rwanda, and the Gambia have also lost large segments of the local press corps in the face of intimidation and violence."
Nine journalists were killed in Somalia last year, making the country the second deadliest in which to be a journalist, according to the CPJ report. The Philippines was the deadliest country last year, with 32 deaths.
The CPJ report said violence against journalists in Somalia has surpassed hotspots such as Iraq and Afghanistan. It cited an estimate by the Union of Exiled Somali Journalists that 80 Somali reporters have been forced into exile over the last three years. CPJ itself says at least 30 journalists have fled in the last decade.
Hussein may have escaped execution eight months ago in Mogadishu, but now he is afraid of the challenges he faces in Kenya, his current residence.
"I can't dare go back to Somalia. I can't dare stay here. I need advice," said Hussein, who was the southern and central Somali director for the satellite station Universal TV when he was seized last June as he drove to work.
Somalia's chaos has dragged on for nearly two decades. For the last three years, the conflict has pitted Islamist insurgents against the weak, U.N.-backed government forces who are holed up in small area of the capital.
Because of the dangers, few international journalists report from Somalia, depriving it of the international media attention that can shine a light on the severe living conditions many Somalis face.
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In any case, that's probably two to three years away from actually happening. We won't have any sense of the commercial viability for some time yet," Barthe Cortes said..
