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Rights group: Somalia smothering media

NEW YORK, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- The Somali government is doing nothing to investigate the violent deaths of eight journalists, Human Rights Watch charged Tuesday.

Most recently, the acting manager of Shabelle Media, an independent radio and Internet reporting service, was gunned down Friday outside a Mogadishu cafe, the group said in a statement from New York.

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In September, Somali government troops fired on Shabelle's offices twice and briefly detained 16 of its staff members.

"The violent attacks on Somalia’s journalists threaten their courageous reporting on the crisis in Mogadishu," said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director of Human Rights Watch. "The transitional Somali government must condemn and investigate these attacks as well as cease its own harassment of the media."

Several journalists in Mogadishu told the group they fear they are being hunted by armed people wearing civilian clothes and others said they had received anonymous telephone death threats.

Since January, when the Ethiopian-backed Transitional Federal Government established itself, the conflict has displaced as many as 400,000 people from the capital, the report said.

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