Somalia raises minimum journalist age to 40

Somalia, with a history of repressing journalism, has set the minimum age at 40 for anyone intending to practice as a journalist in the country. Information minister Abdullahi Ilmoge Hirsi announced the decision today, made by a committee chaired by Somali Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon Saaid. "We invited the Somalia media and journalists last February to a meeting, which the government asked them their ideas and views towards the new law that has been passed today by the cabinet ministers," said Mr Hirsi. "They (journalists) came up with their clues and ideas last May, then we included them, so this law is what they have suggested" The new law has angered Somali journalists. "What the government have done is unacceptable and against freedom of speech," says Nur Hassan, a 25-year-old former BBC journalist from Mogadishu, currently exiled in Nairobi after death threats from terror group Al Shabaab. More