Somalia: BBC reporter killed in Mogadishu

IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
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PRESS RELEASE/ALERT - SOMALIA

9 February 2005

BBC reporter killed in Mogadishu

SOURCE: International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Brussels

(IFJ/IFEX) - The following is an IFJ press release:

IFJ Warns of New Targeting Threat as BBC Reporter is Killed in Somalia

The shooting of a British journalist working for the BBC today by
unidentified gunmen outside her hotel in the capital of Somalia has the
hallmarks of a targeted attack that threatens all media staff working in the
country, warned the International Federation of Journalists today.

Kate Peyton, 39, a producer based in Johannesburg, was taken to the Madina
hospital in Mogadishu for an operation to remove a bullet wound to her back
but later died of internal bleeding. The circumstances surrounding the
incident remain unclear, but according to local reports Peyton was entering
the Hotel Sahafi ("Sahafi = Journalist") when two masked men drove by in a
taxi and shot her in the shoulder.

"The fact that she was shot very close to the journalists' hotel in
Mogadishu suggests that the lawlessness that made journalists prime targets
in Somalia during the 1990s is far from finished," said Aidan White, IFJ
General Secretary. "This should be a warning to all media that political
promises of an end to the violence are a long way from being delivered."

Peyton was one of a number of foreign reporters in the Somali capital
covering a government team that is assessing conditions in the capital,
ahead of a plan to relocate the Somali government to Mogadishu from its
current exile in Nairobi. The transitional Somali government has been based
in Nairobi since they came to power a few months ago amid continued fears of
instability in Somalia.

The country of about 10 million people has been a theatre of anarchic
bloodletting since Mohammed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991, plunging the
nation into a patchwork of fiefdoms governed by warlords and a high degree
of mob-rule and street violence.

Between 1993 and 1998, 15 journalists were killed; ten of them foreign
correspondents during a period when the United Nations and the United States
vainly attempted to restore stability in the country.

Peyton had worked for 10 years in Africa and began working for the BBC as a
producer and reporter in 1993. She also worked as a producer and trainer for
the South African Broadcasting Corporation in Johannesburg.

While police continue investigating and say they have located the taxi and
the pistol used in the attack, the two men involved have still not been
tracked down. The IFJ affiliate in Somalia, the Somali Journalists Network
(SOJON), is following the case.

"This shooting is a chilling reminder that journalists, particularly foreign
correspondents, face a high risk in trying to cover the latest efforts to
bring peace and stability to Somalia," said White.

The IFJ represents over 500,000 journalists in more than 110 countries.

For further information, contact the IFJ, International Press Centre,
Residence Palace, Block C, 155 Rue de la Loi, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium, tel:
+322 235 2200 or +322 235 2207, fax: +322 235 2219, e-mail:
[email protected], Internet: http://www.ifj.org/

The information contained in this press release/alert is the sole
responsibility of IFJ. In citing this material for broadcast or publication,
please credit IFJ.
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