According to the chief editor of Radio Barawe, Fuad Shoble Kafe, around 8.30p.m on Monday, Barawe District Commissioner (DC), Omar Sheikh Abdi visited the radio station and verbally delivered the order to ban all programming in the Baravanese dialect citing that "it was illegal to broadcast in such dialect” without providing any evidence for that.

When SJS contacted the Barawe DC, Omar Sheikh Abdi and the South West State Minister of Information, Ugas Hassan Abdi, both said that "Maay and Mahaa Tiri” are the only sanctioned dialects of the Somali language. Minister Ugas weirdly stated that Radio Barawe, which according to its management has been operating in Barawe since March 2018, is not registered within South West State administration.

Radio Barawe broadcasts daily news program and music in the Baravanese dialect to the local community in Barawe.

SJS calls authorities of South West State and those in Barawe to immediately revoke the politically motivated order of ban against Radio Barawe’s Baravanese programming.

"While Barawe authorities did not shut Radio Barawe entirely, it is strange to bar its broadcast in the locally spoken Baravanese dialect. This order is not only unconstitutional aimed to deprive the right to information from a whole segment of the community in Barawe, but also it is a limitation against freedom of the media,” Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, the Secretary General of Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) said.

"We call for the Barawe District Commissioner and South West State Minister to revoke this illegal ban of the Baravanese dialect of Radio Barawe which is now the only radio in operational in Barawe,” Mr Mumin adds.

Separately, SJS demands from the Somali Federal Government to unconditionally release Radio Hiigsi editor, Mohamed Abduwahaab Nuur (Abuuja) who is being held incommunicado in Mogadishu since March 7.