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afrol News, 28 May - A radio and TV station by the privately owned Somali Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) in the self-declared autonomous Somali state of Puntland has been closed down by government officials. SBC's licence was cancelled after it had criticised the self-declared Puntland President. According to information gathered by the French media watchdogs Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), SBC chief Ali Abdi Aware on 23 May announced that the station was going off the air. He had received word from the authorities cancelling its broadcasting licence and telling him to close the station. An aide of the president said the station had a commercial licence that did not allow it to broadcast political material. RSF yesterday protested against the shutting down of the privately-owned broadcaster and called for the measure to be reversed at once. "This is a serious blow to media diversity in the region and is not the first time press freedom has been threatened in Puntland, where three journalists were arrested last year," said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard in a letter to Puntland President Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf. He called on him to see that journalists could work freely and safely in the region. A statement issued by Colonel Yusuf's chief of cabinet, Isma'il Warsame, had accused SBC of engaging in the "dissemination of hate material or instigation of violence among the people of Puntland." SBC therefore had broken the press laws of Puntland. SBC's chief Abdi Aware denies these charges and claims SBC always had reported without bias. Local observers said SBC had been penalised because it had criticised Colonel Yusuf and reported regularly on the activities of the party led by Jama Ali Jama, a former president of Puntland and political opponent of Colonel Yusuf. The two opponents have fought a civil war to control government offices in Puntland's capital, Bosaso. Colonel Yusuf took control over Bosaso on 8 May. Puntland is in northeastern Somalia and has had an autonomous government since 1998. The region claims it will return to Somali unity when there is a government of its trust in Mogadishu. Sources: Based on RSF and afrol archives
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