SOMALIA: TNG launches “Radio Mogadishu”

Follow @{0}NAIROBI, 24 August 2001 (IRIN) - The Transitional National Government (TNG) launched its first radio station in Mogadishu, on Thursday, a senior official told IRIN. The FM station is called Radio Mogadishu, the Voice of the Somali Republic, and was officially launched by the interim president, Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, the TNG director of information, Abdirahman Dinari, told IRIN. The radio’s name is the same as that under the former government of Muhammad Siyad Barre. The radio had the capacity to be heard throughout Mogadishu and the surrounding areas, Dinari said. “The government is working on setting up a radio station that can reach all of Somalia,” he said. There are at least five other radio stations currently operating in Mogadishu - three privately owned, and two controlled by factions, local sources told IRIN.