Somali authorities free five journalists

Mogadishu: Somali authorities have released five journalists arrested for covering fighting between government troops and insurgents and their radio station is back on the air, reporters said on Friday.

Since relocating to Mogadishu at the start of 2007, the government has raided and temporarily closed most of the city's nine private radio stations at some point, accusing them of siding with Islamists waging a bloody insurgency against it. "We were not interrogated, and a police officer told us that Somalia's police chief ordered our release," Radio Voice of Peace's editor Shafi Muhidin Abukar said.

The station was back on the air yesterday after the journalists were released late on Thursday.