Associated Press

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Two masked gunmen killed the director of one of Somalia’s largest broadcasters on Sunday, a witness and media official said, raising to five the number of journalists killed in Somalia this year.

The gunmen shot Radio Shabelle’s director Moqtar Mohamed Hirab several times in the chest and head, said Feysal Ahmed, a businessman who saw the shooting occur just outside his shop in the capital, Mogadishu. Mr. Ahmed’s shop is in Bakara market, the biggest in Mogadishu.

Radio Shabelle Editor Abdulrahman Aladala said another journalist who was walking with Hirab in Bakara market is seriously wounded and in a hospital.

“This is a big tragedy. The rights of journalists have been attacked and been violated,” Mr. Aladala said.

Radio Shabelle is an independent station that has been broadcasting since March 2003. The company launched a TV station earlier this year. Mr. Hirab is the third journalist from Radio Shabelle to be killed this year.

Somalia is one of the most dangerous places for the media to work in. Before Mr. Hirab’s death, four other Somali journalists had been killed, according to the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders. The journalists have either been targeted or caught in the crossfire of fighting between different groups.

Somalia has been mired in anarchy and chaos since warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

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