Can Somali Media Survive Farmaajo's Presidency?
In 2016, Farmaajo's presidential campaign, unlike his competitors, had perfectly understood the power of the image. His campaign was propelled to power by an unprecedented populist media blitz, which won him a surprise victory. Consequently, upon assuming office, Farmaajo's image-obsessed administration, aka "Igu Sawir" government, made it a top priority to neutralize and control the country's relatively independent press.
In his aggressive bid to capture and alter the media landscape, Farmaajo deployed both soft and hard power against an already ailing media sector. Successive Somali administrations have always suppressed the media in one way or another. However, Farmaajo's government has taken the danger faced by journalists to a new high.
Since coming to power, a dozen journalists were killed while many more are still injured every month in the line of duty. Police and NISA agents are primarily implicated in a brutal spate of physical attacks, torture, and arbitrary arrests to silence independent journalism.
Each year, over 60 journalists across the country are either beaten, harassed, or arrested, according to data from Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS), an independent media rights organization.
Bribery and Co-optation
Farmaajo's assault on the media exploited the existing institutional vulnerabilities. Faced with an insufficient budget and declining ad revenues, few media owners can afford to refuse the government's offer to buy them out.
In early 2020, an Amnesty International report titled "We live in perpetual fear" documented how Villa Somalia was "bribing most of the main media outlets" to enforce self-censorship. The bribe delivered as monthly cash payments, in the range of $5000 to $10,000 per outlet, according to media analysts, is paid to procure "positive coverage," in other words, propaganda.
To further tighten the choke on watchdog journalism, Farmaajo's regime poached the most prominent critical journalists and media rights defenders - rewarding them with top jobs to defend the same government they were criticizing. Journalists who refused to switch loyalties were fired through government influence, arrested, or beaten until they fled the country.
As expected, the recruitment of experienced journalists as press directors dealt a devastating blow to public interest journalism. For example, even though investigative reporters and programs by international media outlets such as the VOA's Galka Baarista unearthed numerous corruption scandals, mainstream media coverage of these kinds of critical stories shrunk to near zero. At the same time, the new press secretaries took advantage of the media's inability to verify and fact-check - and flooded friendly outlets with unfiltered government press releases and misinformation.
The regime has also weaponized state spending on media services. Ministries shower loyalist media companies with advertising money and contracts while starving critical stations.
Access Denied
Farmaajo's media capture strategy has also eliminated the space and opportunity for any hard-hitting interviews with the president or any of his top officials. The president's handlers refused countless offers to interview with independent local and international media organizations. Instead, they allowed only a handful of highly choreographed interviews with loyalist media stations.
Reporters chosen to do these fluffy interviews are limited to a set of preselected softball questions and boring "patriotism" or "national pride" themes. Follow-up questions are not allowed in these farcical interviews, as Farmaajo delivers a monologue of canned yet illogical responses.
The administration's effort to tightly control political coverage has also taken media censorship in the country to a new nadir. By whim, Farmaajo's press managers blacklist reporters and deny critical media stations access to official functions. In order to control the narrative, the regime regularly banned live coverage of important national events. Instead, Villa Somalia's press team records, edits, and sterilize the event footage in-house before distributing doctored clips to pro-government televisions.
Fake News, Trolls and Bullies
Farmaajo's regime has also stepped up and systemized spending on propaganda, fake news, and disinformation. Villa Somalia's communication team reportedly runs a secret slush fund to sponsor trolls and fanatics with megaphones on social media who peddle foul stories and fake news to discredit critical reporters.
Shocking testimony and evidence gathered by reporters show how Farmaajo's press team uses digital media tools to crowdsource online fury and violence aimed at silencing independent journalists. Thanks to leaked photos and videos, we now know, for instance, how the press staff at Villa Somalia, uses WhatsApp groups teaming with "Cayaayanka Baraha Bulshada (CBB)," the aptly named faceless trolls - to distribute messages, images and instructions to carry out atrocious online attacks on journalists and government critics.
Several Somali journalists had their Facebook or Twitter accounts disabled or banned after CBB trolls gamed social media platforms' reporting systems.
Following the footsteps of his favorite American leader, Donald Trump, Farmaajo and his senior officials routinely berate and insult journalists on live television as "Qaran Dumis" or subversive agents. State-owned outlets Somali National Television and Radio Mogadishu have also joined brazen malicious disinformation against critics and opposition leaders.
The Somali media is a special stakeholder in rebuilding and sustaining our fledgling democracy. The media is not a player in the political game but an independent and impartial referee. It must not be co-opted and misused.
If not immediately reversed, the grim media situation in Somalia is fast starting to eerily resemble the long-silenced media in Eritrea, where Farmaajo's close ally, the dictator Isias Efawerki, has banned private media and keeps hundreds of journalists in jail, without trial.