Media protection groups are outraged over the murder of a freelance photo reporter who was shot this week in Mogadishu as he covered a street demonstration.
Swedish-born Martin Adler was in Somalia working for several media groups when he responded to a several thousand-strong demonstration marching through the capital.
Although details leading up to his murder are scare, Reporters Without Borders said the freelance was shot by a hooded man just moments after demonstrators set fire to an Ethiopian flag.
The murder takes the number of foreign journalists killed in the City to four over the last 12 years, fuelling fears that Western media continue to be seen as an unwanted foreign influence.
In a statement reflecting on the “appalling” murder of the Mr Adler, Reporters Without Borders appealed to the capital city's warring factions to stop using journalists as “pawns…in their battle for power."
The rally Mr Adler was attending was in support of a peace accord reached this week between the Islamic courts and the Somali federal transition government.
Somali journalists have said his shooing was designed to send a message to the Islamic court militias that recently took control of Mogadishu after ousting the warlords that had controlled the city.
Those behind the act probably wanted to show that, contrary to the claims of the heads of the Islamic courts, security has not been re-established in Mogadishu, they said.
Jun 30, 2006
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