User:Crtew/Hassan Osman Abdi

 Hassan Osman Abdi, also known as "Hassan Fantastic", (1982 – 28 January 2012), was a Somalian journalist who served as the director for the Shabelle Media Network in Mogadishu, Somalia when he was killed. He was the third director of Shabelle to be killed since Bashir Nur Gedi in 2007 and Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe in 2009 and the first journalist to be killed in the year 2012.


 * Most recently, "The family of Hassan Osman Abdi 'Hassan Fantastic' the assassinated journalist of Radio Shabelle Director disheartened about the news of two men held for his killing case".
 * AP Big Story
 * Press TV
 * RSF
 * CJFE
 * 2010 Prize
 * Afronline

Personal
Hassan Osman Abdi was born in 1982 in the southern part of the Lower Juba region of Somalia. He and his wife had three children.

Career
Abdi was the director of the Shabelle Media Network, a popular, privately-owned radio station. He had been working there for three years when he was killed.

He was a well-known journalist. Before he was killed, he had been working on reporting the political crisis of Somalia focusing on government corruption. Somalia has had no functioning government since 1991.

Abdi was appointed to be the Somalia delegate at a regional training session organized by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Eastern Africa Journalist Association in February 2012, in Bujumbura, Burundi.

Death
Prior to his murder Abdi had been reporting on government corruption in Somalia.

On 28 January 2012, Abdi was ambushed and shot outside his home in Mogadishu at about 6:30 p.m. Witnesses reported that Abdi had been followed by five men in a sedan who then opened fire, shooting Abdi multiple times in the chest and head. The 29-year old director of Shabelle was pronounced dead at the scene.

Context
Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists and has been plagued by a civil war since 1991. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists Shabelle Media Network was a target of violence by security forces for its coverage.

Reactions
Irina Bokova, director general of UNESCO, said, "(His) murder ... is a severe blow to a country where the media have paid a heavy price for exercising the human right to freedom of expression. The death of journalists undermines the right of people to be kept informed."