Garowe (Bile Blog) The Parliament of Puntland on Monday approved a new media bill passed by the region’s cabinet of ministers months ago.
The new media bill which had some controversial articles threatening the media independence and the identification of journalists operating in the region has been under criticism of media professionals but the current information minister of Puntland insisted to put to the parliament for approval according to journalists in Garowe.
In the parliament session on Monday, 32 out 37 legislators who were in the session voted in favor for the new media bill, according to Puntland Parliament Speaker Said Hassan Shire who then announced that the media bill was approved.
The bill now waits for president’s signature to become into effective.
Some of the media owners and professional journalists were immediately skeptical on what they said as some articles of the proposed bill which were amended without the awareness of the journalists who earlier helped in its first stage of preparation.
The move came as security forces in Garowe detained a veteran journalist and writer in Garowe on Sunday evening.
Anyhow, the media activist groups were not yet available for comment on their reaction to the new media bill.
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