“We urge the Somali authorities to review the draft in order to ensure its conformity with international human rights standards,” the spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Rupert Colville, told reporters in Geneva.

“We are particularly concerned that the draft legislation contains vague language and extremely broad categories that could easily be used to curtail freedom of expression, for instance requiring media not to contravene or disseminate information that is against Islam, or Somali traditions or traditional ethics,” he said.We urge the Somali authorities to review the draft in order to ensure its conformity with international human rights standards.

The draft law also requires journalists to reveal their sources if published information stirs up public sentiments, and would suspend journalists and other representatives of media organizations accused of violating the media legislation.

Colville said the Somali Government had promised to organize broad consultations prior to the law’s enactment. However, the draft media law was submitted and adopted by the Council of Ministers on 11 July and will now be submitted to the Somali legislature and later to the President. This process is estimated to take less than two months, leaving insufficient time for wide-ranging consultations to take place to improve the law.

OHCHR said it is also concerned about the composition of the proposed regulatory body, the National Media Council, and the selection process for its members, neither of which guarantee its independence.

“Journalists must be able to carry out their work safely as they play an essential role in ensuring that a well-informed public can exercise its democratic rights,” stated Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), who deplored the killings and voiced deep concern about the safety of media professionals in these countries.

On Tuesday, Akhmednabi Akhmednabiyev, deputy editor of the Novoye Delo weekly newspaper, was shot dead in his car near his home on the outskirts of Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan province.

Akhmednabiyev, the second journalist to be killed in Russia this year, survived an assassination attempt in January and had received numerous threats to his life, UNESCO said in a news release.

“Using violence to silence journalists who inform society about the problems it is facing does not make those problems go away; it simply reduces a society’s ability to tackle them,” said Ms. Bokova. “I therefore trust that the authorities will spare no effort to bring to justice those responsible for a crime against a man and a profession that is important for democracy.”

The killing of Liban Abdullahi Farah on 7 July has once again highlighted concerns about the safety of journalists in Somalia, which continues to be one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a media professional.

“This killing marks another black day for journalists trying to carry out their professional duties in Somalia,” stated Ms. Bokova. “All too many media workers in the country have paid with their lives for our right to be kept informed. I pay tribute to their dedication and call on the authorities to spare no effort to stop these killings.”

Farah, a reporter for Bossasso-based Somali Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) and London-based Kalsan TV, was killed when three unidentified assailants opened fire on him in the Barahley neighborhood of Galkayo town.

Bokova also called on the Mexican authorities to investigate the death of Mario Ricardo Chávez Jorge, a journalist for El Ciudadano newspaper. His body was found in the state of Tamaulipas near the United States border on 26 June – two weeks after he was abducted as he was leaving a cinema with his family in Ciudad Victoria.

“It is important that the authorities investigate this killing and bring those responsible for it to trial,” said the Director-General.

The grounds for the convictions are unclear, but the court appeared to convict the two under Somalia’s penal code and newly added charges under Sharia (Islamic) law. The journalist, Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim, was sentenced to one year for fabricating a false claim – even though he never published the allegation anywhere – entering the home of another man without permission, and falsely accusing a government body of committing a crime that damages state security.

The woman was also sentenced to one year in prison for fabricating a rape case that damages state security. The court deferred her sentence for one year because she is breastfeeding. Abdiaziz Abdinur is detained in Mogadishu Central Prison. The court ordered the release of the woman’s husband for lack of evidence.

“These guilty verdicts mean that any Somali who is raped or otherwise abused by Somali security forces will think twice about reporting it to the police, and journalists will be cautious of even interviewing victims of human rights violations,” said Netsanet Belay, Africa programme director at Amnesty International.“The government should quash the case and order the immediate release of the journalist from prison.”

The groups calling for overturning the convictions and freeing the journalist are the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), Sister Somalia, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The verdicts stem from an interview by Abdiaziz Abdinur with the woman on January 8, 2013 about her alleged rape by government security forces in August 2012.

The woman initially retracted her claim after being interrogated for two days by the police without legal counsel. She later refused to recant her allegations in meetings with the attorney general. She was released, but was required to report to police daily, and her husband was detained in her place. Credible local sources say he has steadfastly supported his wife’s allegations. The man and woman who allegedly helped her meet with the journalist were arrested around the same time.

Senior government officials publicly said the defendants were guilty before the trial, undermining the presumption of innocence.

The prosecutor failed to provide any evidence to justify a conviction on the criminal charges, the organizations said. A midwife testified on the first day of the trial, February 2, that she concluded that the woman was not raped after conducting a “finger test,” an unscientific and degrading practice that has long been discredited because it is not a credible test of whether a woman has been raped.

The judge refused to allow the defense lawyer to present witnesses to the court, and he was not permitted to present any medical evidence to rebut the prosecution’s assertions. The defendants will appeal the convictions, their lawyer said.

“This case has been flawed by serious violations of due process from the start,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The long pre-trial detention without charge, official smears of the defendants in the media, and the abusive police efforts to discredit and intimidate a woman who alleged rape, point to a government more concerned with deflecting criticism than protecting ordinary citizens.”

Sexual and gender-based violence has been a significant problem throughout the Somali conflict. Internally displaced women and girls, such as the alleged victim in this case, are particularly vulnerable to such abuse. But they are often very reluctant to report rape to authorities because they fear reprisals, lack faith in the authorities, and have little access to medical, psychosocial, and legal services. This case risks creating further mistrust, the organizations said.

“This case is forcing women in Somalia to ask, who can we trust now?” said Fartuun Abdisalaan Adan from Sister Somalia, a shelter for rape survivors in Mogadishu run by Elman Peace and Human Rights Center. “The government should focus on building trust and ensuring accountability for abuses, not intimidating vulnerable individuals.”

“Somali reporters should feel secure to interview anyone alleging a human rights violation,” said the Committee to Protect Journalists’ East Africa consultant, Tom Rhodes. “The current climate of censorship and recrimination means it is perilous to take any step toward seeking accountability and justice.”