Somalia has no public record of the journalists its police, intelligence services and regional administrations arrest. This register is OPR's attempt at one. Every entry names the journalist, says who held them and why, gives the status on a stated date, and links to the organisation that documented it. It covers federal Somalia, the federal member states and Somaliland. It is not complete, and it says so.
Each status carries its date. A journalist marked as held was held on that date; OPR may not yet know of a release. Older entries say only what their source says, and where the source does not give an outcome, the entry says so. If you know one, please tell us.
Summoned to CID headquarters and detained on arrival. He was questioned about his 15 October interview with Abdiqadir Sharay, who plans to stand for president of Somalia in the 2027 elections. Somaliland’s information ministry and presidency did not answer CPJ’s request for comment.
Detained after answering a CID summons, a day after the poet Ismail Yusuf Abdi (Jiheeye) was detained over a video interview the journalist had published. A court ordered him held for seven days pending investigation. His lawyer says an officer informally mentioned two planned charges, offending the president’s honour and spreading anti-state propaganda. None had been put to a court.
Detained at Bosaso airport while seeing a relative off. No official reason was given. NUSOJ links the arrest to his coverage of a dispute between Bosaso traders and the Puntland administration over new taxes and higher port charges. NUSOJ counts it as the third journalist detention in Puntland since 2 July 2026.
Arrested hours after reporting on business closures in Bosaso over a tax increase on goods through the port. SJS cites no formal charge. Officials have not said where he is held.
Arrested at her home on 2 July after a video report on residents’ concerns about an armed group in Garowe, and held at Garowe Central Prison. On 13 July a prosecutor presented charges of public incitement, defamation, spreading propaganda and breaching journalistic ethics. NUSOJ says she was released on 15 July. It does not say whether the case is still open.
Held after a meeting with NISA officers. They accused him of hacking the Southwest State president’s Facebook page, which he denies, and questioned him about two videos, one critical of the new Southwest State president. CPJ counts 38 days and SJS 39.
Arrested after publishing a video interview in which a former presidential adviser accused the president of being ineffective and of failing to pay regional security forces. A court remanded him for seven days on 27 March. The adviser was arrested the same day.
Arrested at his outlet’s offices on the evening of 22 February. His family found him at CID headquarters two days later. A court remanded him for seven days, then extended the detention by three while prosecutors prepared charges. He believes the arrest followed his interviews with a former rebel commander and an MP who criticised the president.
SJS counted ten arrests between 11 and 27 September but names nine. In Borama three were held a day after critical coverage of the president’s visit. In Burao a reporter was held 18 days and acquitted, yet stayed in custody because the Attorney General appealed. In Erigabo four were held seven hours and beaten after questioning an education minister about school closures. In Gabiley a Facebook reporter was held with no warrant.
Arrested after posting an article accusing police of involvement in two murder cases. Prosecutors charged him with spreading false information. He was fined 1,500,000 Somaliland shillings, about $150, and released on 3 September.
Journalists covering a protest by women meat sellers and collecting public opinion on the political crisis were detained between 22 and 24 May. SJS says NISA deleted footage, confiscated equipment and warned reporters off street interviews. One was held overnight in Galkayo and forced to delete a video. SJS’s headline says 15 and its own statement says 14; its itemised list names 15.
Police closed the station and arrested a reporter, a woman reporter, two cameramen and a technician on the day of the bombing of the president’s convoy. Risaala management say the order came from the Banadir police commissioner. Risaala had been first to report the attack. SJS demanded the station be allowed back on air.
CPJ documented a run of detentions after the information minister’s 6 March ban on news that “could threaten national security”. They include Bahjo Abdullahi Salad (RTN Somali TV), held four hours by NISA over a TikTok video about rubbish; five reporters covering a protest against sexual violence on 28 March; four Five Somali TV staff on 1 April; two Risaala TV reporters accused of exaggerating Al-Shabaab’s actions on 28 April; four reporters shot at and held on 29 April; and a 17-year-old and a station guest at a Mogadishu studio on 5 May. CPJ says at least 41 journalists were detained, assaulted or harassed from mid-March.
Arrested after a report on the telecom company Telesom. Police said the company had complained.
Duale was held eight days after publishing an interview in which a member of the forces threatened prisoners. Boqorre was freed after his station agreed to take down a report on a family’s claim that their daughter died after a wrong injection.
Arrested within days of publishing an investigation into the dismissal of NISA officials and a report on an abandoned well said to be used as a mass grave. Held about a day without charge.
Arrested in a raid on his office during a live debate on the Ethiopia–Somaliland port deal. Somaliland’s information ministry said he was held “for security reasons”. Three others arrested in the raid were released on 9 January without charge.
Arrested after crossing from Ethiopia and accused of spreading propaganda and undermining Somaliland’s security and unity. CPJ says she was reportedly kicked and slapped during the arrest and could not determine what reporting prompted it.
His third detention by NISA, after the October 2022 arrest above and a second arrest while trying to travel for medical care. Days after his release a court order froze the SJS bank accounts. According to the sources cited in Ismail Abukar’s August 2026 analysis, no officer involved has been investigated or prosecuted.
The two Adado reporters had interviewed clan elders who said they had met Al-Shabaab members. The three Risaala journalists were stopped while recording residents who complained about road closures during a visit by Djibouti’s president, and told not to interview them. Police confiscated their equipment.
Seized as he prepared to fly to Nairobi, days after he tweeted CCTV footage of security forces trying to enter the Syndicate’s office. The information ministry said he was held on “security related charges”. Prosecutors said they were investigating him for breaching a new media directive and publishing “secret” footage. He was detained again in February 2023, below.
SJS and SOMA listed four detentions and a beating in three weeks. Awad was held five days at an undisclosed location after posts criticising the jailing of an activist. Dirir was freed by a judge for lack of charges. The two Guriel reporters had covered federal commando operations. Abukar was beaten with guns after covering a protest against federal forces. On 21 January Hirshabelle police shut Radio Hiiraan Weyn and detained seven of its journalists.
Arrested over interviews with members of the public about the record of the Sool governor. Abdifatah had also been arrested on 24 October and freed in early November. CPJ reported no charges. Three people interviewed in his report were also in custody. CPJ calls the authorities Somaliland’s.
Taken from his home three days after interviewing a businessman who once financed the Islamic Courts Union. He was held five days without access to family or lawyers.
Human Rights Watch listed a spate of cases. Gurbiye was charged with offending the head of state’s honour and publishing false news over Facebook posts, and bailed after four days. Atosh was charged with false news after a VOA report in Baidoa and freed after two days. Hussein was held briefly and made to delete his recordings. Abdiwahab Nur was arrested on 7 March, held incommunicado, and the information ministry said he was investigated for Al-Shabaab membership and murder.
Detained over Facebook posts criticising the intelligence agency, per HRW’s 2020 account. He has since fled the country.
These are the Somali Journalists Syndicate's own yearly counts, and NUSOJ's for comparison. Each count is of arrests, so a journalist arrested twice can appear twice, and SJS's methods have changed over the years. Added up, SJS's yearly figures come to about 500 from 2019 to 2 November 2026 (38, 56, 65, 84, 25, 31, 148 and 50), with another 12 in Somaliland in 2021 counted separately. The two organisations count differently and neither counts every case.
| Year | Figure | Counted by | Note and source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 50 arrests and detentions recorded so far | SJS violations database | Query of data.sjsyndicate.org for 1 January to 2 November 2026, run by OPR, so the year is not over. SJS’s statement of 3 May counted at least 18 violations of all types by that date. data.sjsyndicate.org |
| 2025 | 148 journalists arrested or arbitrarily detained | SJS | Includes 36 in Somaliland. SJS says nearly 90 percent were never brought to court. The database gives the same 148. sjsyndicate.org |
| 2024 | 31 arrests and detentions recorded | SJS violations database | Query of data.sjsyndicate.org for calendar 2024, run by OPR. I found no SJS annual report with a 2024 total. data.sjsyndicate.org |
| 2023 | 25 journalists arbitrarily detained | SJS | Seven in Somaliland and 18 by Somali police, the intelligence agency and regional forces. The database gives 24. sjsyndicate.org |
| 2022 | 84 journalists arrested | SJS | SJS annual report 2022. sjsyndicate.org |
| 2021 | 65 journalists arbitrarily detained in Somalia | SJS | SJS counts a further 12 arrested in Somaliland separately. sjsyndicate.org |
| 2020 | 56 journalists arbitrarily arrested by state security forces | SJS | SJS annual report 2020. sjsyndicate.org |
| 2019 | 38 arrests, then a record | SJS | SJS figure compiled by its secretary-general, as reported by Reuters and Al Jazeera in January 2020. aljazeera.com |
| 2025 | 72 press freedom violations, 69 of them attacks on journalists | NUSOJ | NUSOJ counts violations, not arrests, and publishes no separate arrest figure. Its method differs from SJS, so the two are not comparable. ifj.org |
The cases in this register share a shape. A journalist publishes an interview or a report that a president, a governor or a security chief does not like. Days later police or intelligence officers take them from an office, an airport or a street, often with no warrant. They are held for hours or weeks, sometimes under a seven-day court remand that is renewed, and in many cases no charge is ever put to a court. In Mogadishu in May 2025 the sources say footage was deleted before the reporters were let go. The Somali Journalists Syndicate says nearly nine in ten journalists arrested in 2025 never saw a court. An arrest that never becomes a prosecution is not law enforcement. It is a warning to everyone else in the newsroom.
An entry goes in only if a press-freedom organisation, a news outlet or the journalist's lawyer has documented it, and the page links to that source. OPR records what the source says, not more, and keeps a dated status so the reader can see how old it is. Where sources differ, as with the number detained in Mogadishu in May 2025, the difference is stated. Names of journalists who ask not to be named are not published.
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If you know of a journalist who has been detained, or who has been released since the date shown, tell us. Give a testimony, send information, or WhatsApp OPR at +252 61 977 5580. OPR protects anyone who asks to stay anonymous. See also Silenced Signals, OPR's earlier account of the May 2025 arrests, and Ismail Abukar's August 2026 analysis, The Journalists Who Disappeared.