Somalia Media Sustainability Index (MSI)
April 24, 2013
About the MSI
IREX designed the MSI to measure the strength and viability of any country's media sector. The MSI considers all the factors that contribute to a media system—the quality of journalism, effectiveness of management, the legal environment supporting freedom of the press, and more—to arrive at scores on a scale ranging between 0 and 4. These scores represent the strength of the media sector components and can be analyzed over time to chart progress (or regression) within a country. Additionally, countries or regions may be compared to one another. IREX currently conducts the MSI in 80 countries, and began studying Africa in 2006.
MSI Overview | Africa | Asia | Europe & Eurasia | Middle East & North Africa
Download Complete Somalia Chapter (PDF): 2012 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2006/7
MSI Somalia - 2012 Introduction
Overall Country Score: 1.56
Somalia’s political landscape changed dramatically since the last MSI study of the country in 2010. The central authority has reached most of the southern and central regions of the country—including all of the capital, Mogadishu—as domestic and foreign security forces pushed the militant group Al Shabaab from the capital and nearby areas. This turn of events has left the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in control, and for the first time in two decades, peace seems possible in Somalia.
Those previous 20 years of civil war in this isolated country virtually destroyed the Somali press. Hundreds of qualified journalists fled to Europe, the United States, and other countries in the region in search of security and employment. Only two printed newspapers remain in Mogadishu: the privately owned Xog-Ogaal and the state-run Dalka.
The present relative calm in the media sector was hard-fought. At least six journalists were killed in the first half of 2012 by unknown gunmen. Prosecutors have not identified perpetrators in any of these cases, leading some of their few remaining colleagues to leave the country, fearing for their own safety. TFG security forces blame Al Shabaab elements for these crimes, though the authorities have failed to stop the violence. While the peace dividend has brought some improvements to the media, the country’s modest overall score increase was tempered by these attacks and the effects they have on reporters.
In semiautonomous Puntland, the regional government continues to harass local media through arbitrary detentions and arrests. Attacks against journalists there have risen since 2010.
Institutions that would normally support an independent media are particularly weak or non-existent in Somalia. No laws govern the profession, and many written civil laws go unheeded anyway. Without media trade or professional associations, Somalia has no one to set uniform codes of conduct or standards. Media representation of women in this conservative society is low, and women are largely confined to the lowest news-reader and correspondent positions.
FM radio continues to dominate the media scene, and the number of new station startups continues to skyrocket. TFG inaugurated the first state television network since the collapse of the former regime; the network is watched primarily in urban areas. Private satellite television has begun to grow, as has a nascent online media segment. The media profession continues to attract young men and women to its ranks.
Somaliland, the country’s northern breakaway region, has continued to govern itself and its media sector independently of the rest of Somalia. As such, a separate chapter and set of MSI scores has been assessed for that region, following this chapter.
