The Somaliland authorities are under local and international obligations to respect the freedom of journalists to gather news and report events as they unfold in the troubled Horn of Africa region, the chairman of Hayaan Media Development Centre said on Monday.

  Ali Dahir Eid called for the breakaway Somali region’s administration to release Jibril Ali Omar and Dahir Ahmed Jirde, online correspondents for www.boramanews.com and www.saylac.com, respectively.

“Somaliland authorities have to ensure both men are released immediately and safely” Eid said in a statement

Omar and Jirde were detained on Saturday in Borama after writing on leaflets, videos and news distributed by Diaspora members of Awdal province who said they established an independent “Awdal State”.

Eid said the Journalists did not demand “autonomy” for the region but they have reported what seemed to be coordinated ceremonies in cities in the U.S, Canada and Europe.

“Omar and Jirde reported as events happened, they did not engage politics directly by lobbying sovereignty for this province, and that is what we want authorities should understand”

  The Transitional Federal Government, Local administrations, and armed groups in southern Somalia also target journalists consistently, arbitrary detaining or killing them for reports that are critical to them.

Caught in the crossfire, Ahmed Hassan, sports reporter for Radio Simba in Mogadishu has been wounded last Wednesday in the fighting between African peacekeepers, Amisom and Alshabaab militants during a soccer match in the north of the city.

This incident comes as Samira Mohamed, Voice of Peace correspondent who was injured by bullets when she had been heading her home in the same neighborhood last month, recovers in her hospital bed.