Journalist expelled from Jowhar

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

NAIROBI-- A radio journalist who was detained for six days in the Somali town of Jowhar, the temporary seat of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), has been released without charge and banished from the town, his employer said on Wednesday.

Abdullahi Adow, an employee of the independent HornAfrik radio station, was arrested in Jowhar on 2 August by militiamen, local sources said.

"He was released and was immediately escorted out of town and told not to return," Ali Iman, managing partner of HornAfrik, told IRIN. Adow, he added, was not physically tortured or mistreated during his incarceration.

The authorities in Jowhar, located 90 km north of the capital, Mogadishu, have not disclosed the reasons for his arrest or subsequent expulsion, he added.

Adow had on 2 August filed a report alleging that senior officials of the TFG were being housed in a local school, and had said parents of children attending the school had demanded that the officials vacate it before the start of a new term.

Iman said the Mogadishu-based HornAfrik would not send another reporter to Jowhar "for the time being. It will be very difficult covering the TFG and what is happening there, but we have no choice