20100919
reuters

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Insurgents in Somalia's capital Mogadishu beat guards and looted equipment from one radio station and seized control of another on Saturday in the latest attacks on media in the anarchic Horn of Africa nation.

Somalia is one of the most dangerous places for journalists in the world. It was second behind Iraq in the Committee to Protect Journalist's impunity index this year -- a ranking of nations where reporters are killed on a recurring basis and the perpetrators rarely prosecuted.

Somali radio stations in particular have been targeted by two groups of Islamist insurgents fighting to topple the Western-backed administration, while government troops have also been accused of harassing reporters during the conflict.

Employees of the independent radio station HornAfrik in Mogadishu said gunmen from the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab rebel group raided the broadcaster late on Saturday.

"The guards were blindfolded and beaten by the gunmen and they then proceeded to the all rooms and took away the equipment," a HornAfrik reporter told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Gunmen from another insurgent group, Hizbul Islam, seized control of the GBC radio station also on Saturday, and reporters at some other broadcasters said they had been warned they would soon be taken over by one of the rebel groups.

"Armed Hizbul Islam fighters came to our radio station. They did not take equipment but took control of the station," Mohamed Ibrahim, a producer at GBC told Reuters. "They are still here and in control of the radio."

In April this year, al Shabaab said it had taken the British Broadcasting Corporation off the air in regions it controlled, saying the BBC spread Christian propaganda.