DJIBOUTI – News website correspondent still incommunicado 48 hours after arrest

Reporters Without Borders calls on interior minister Hassan Darar Houffaneh and justice minister Ali Farah Assoweh to immediately reveal why La Voix de Djibouti correspondent Houssein Ahmed Farah was arrested two days ago, where he is being held and what his current status is.

“According to our information, Farah is still at Djibouti’s central police station, where he is being refused visits,” Reporters Without Borders said. “No reason has so far been given for his detention. It is intolerable that we are still without any news of this journalist 48 hours after his arrest.”

Reporters Without Borders continues to be concerned about his state of health.

Farah was arrested at around 11 a.m. on 8 August in Djibouti-Ville by two police officers, Col. Abdoulkader Ibrahim Gona and Col. Abdillahi Hassan Boulaleh. More information: http://en.rsf.org/djibouti-police-arrest-news-website-09-08-2012,43186.html

Reporters Without Borders has meanwhile learned that Djibouti’s authorities have just blocked access to five Somali news websites – Waagacusub.com, Sunatimes.com, Galmudugnews.com, Halbeegnews.com and Qurbejoog.com.

Waagacusub.com recently posted confidential documents about transfers of money between Djibouti’s intelligence services and officials in Somaliland, a breakaway Somali territory that adjoins Djibouti.

This is not the first time Djibouti’s authorities have blocked news websites. The former web radio Farah works for and which is now a news website – La Voix de Djibouti (lavoixdedjibouti.com) – cannot be accessed from within Djibouti. To circumvent this censorship, Reporters Without Borders created a mirror site (lavoixdedjibouti.rsf.org) that enables Internet users in Djibouti to access the website. La Voix de Djibouti’s website recently posted some of the confidential documents that had been revealed by Waagacusub.com.