16th Somali journalist killed this year
Al Shabaab still controls much of southern and central Somalia, but is under increasing pressure from Kenyan forces in the south and Ethiopian forces in the west.
Television journalist Ahmed Saakin Farah Ilyas was shot dead on Tuesday and became the 16th journalist to be killed in Somalia this year.
According to the Associated Press, the 25-year- old reporter for the London-based Universal TV was shot by assailants three times in the head around 9 pm Tuesday in the northern region of Somaliland.
"He was heading home in Lasanod when three men armed with hand guns shot him several times. He died instantly and the gunmen escaped," colleague Feysal Jama told Al Jazeera.
More from GlobalPost: 70 journalists killed in 2012
"It's a shocking murder, and part of the anti-media campaign," Abdullahi Ahmed Nor, a fellow journalist, said to the AP on Wednesday. "It was a big loss for us, his friends and family."
Radio reporter Mohamed Mohamud of Shabelle Media Network also survived a shooting attack Sunday in Mogadishu, reported Voice of America. The National Union of Somali Journalists believes the shootings are part of a conspiracy and is demanding authorities investigate.
According to the press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders, Somalia now ranks as the deadliest country in the world for journalists in 2012, alongside Syria, noted The Guardian. No suspects have been arrested for any of the murders.