Horn Afrik Radio presenters read the news at a studio in Mogadishu. Photograph: Badri Media/E

All but two station in Mogadishu comply with order to cease broadcasts that militants say violate Islamic principles.  A majority of radio stations in southern and central Somalia today stopped playing music and jingles, to comply with a ban by Islamist militants.

Hizbul Islam, one of the two main insurgent forces in Somalia, issued the order on 3 April, saying music broadcasts violated Islamic principles. It gave FM radio stations – the main form of news and entertainment in the country – 10 days to comply or be shut down.

Islamic groups have previously outlawed music in some areas under their control, along with beards, football, movies, women's beauty salons and bras. The latest ban on all tunes – including those used in commercials – appears to be the most widely applied yet, and indicative of the rebels' ability to instil fear.

In the capital, Mogadishu, where there are 16 FM radio stations, only the government-controlled Radio Mogadishu, which is protected by African Union peacekeepers, and the UN-funded Radio Bar-Kulan, whose studio is in Nairobi, resisted the order.

Al-Shabab, an Islamic insurgency group allied to al-Qaida, has ordered Somali radio stations broadcasting news programming from VOA and the British Broadcasting Corporation to immediately cancel their contracts.

VOA issued a statement Friday afternoon saying, "VOA regrets this decision.  We believe broadcasting news and information on FM stations serves the Somali people."

Al-Shabab accused the BBC of confusing Muslims with western ideas and insulting the Islamic insurgents. The BBC was also accused of broadcasting propaganda for the U.N.-backed Transitional Federal Government which is attempting to expel the rebel group from the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

The head of the Africa Desk for Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, Ambroise Pierre, said al-Shabab's actions were part of a pattern of hostility towards journalists.

For the few who know him in Somalia, he is a "crazy" refugee, but many have never heard of K'naan - a hip-hop artist whose hit song "Waving Flag" is the official World Cup anthem.

Born Keinan Abdi Warsame in 1978 in Mogadishu, the Toronto-based rapper who fled the war-wracked Horn of Africa country at the age of 13, has worked up crowds across the world during the World Cup Trophy tour.

The soccer anthem, from his album "Troubadour," is a stomping rendition packed with resounding percussions and rhymed with a reggae riff and was also recently reworked for the Haiti earthquake fundraiser.

"He is great but I can tell you that nobody knows about his greatness in Somalia, where he is taken as someone who lost his culture to the West," said Mohamed Adan Tarabi, a 25-year-old football fan.

Al-Shabab and its allies control most of southern and central Somalia

The Somali Islamist movement al-Shabab has banned the BBC and closed down transmitters broadcasting the Somali language service inside the country.

Al-Shabab accused the BBC of fighting against Islam and supporting the transitional federal government, which the rebels are fighting to overthrow.

The group said the BBC had been broadcasting the agenda of crusaders and colonialists against Muslims.

The BBC said it was strictly impartial and spoke to all sides in the conflict.

All but two of Mogadishu's 13 radio stations broadcast music

Radio stations broadcasting out of Somalia face a dilemma this month after a powerful Islamist militant group ordered them to stop playing music.

Saying that the playing of music was un-Islamic, Hizbul-Islam announced on Saturday that stations had 10 days to take it off air.

The punishment for failing to comply was not specified but 11 radio stations based in the capital, Mogadishu, are thought to be directly affected.

If they drop music, they stand to lose listeners. If they ignore the warning, they face the wrath of the militants.

Music-lovers in the war-torn country are indignant at the idea they will not be able to tune into their favourite pop, which is largely recorded abroad, in North America and the UK.

Anchors read the latest news from around the world this month in the studio at Radio Mogadishu, which opened in 1951. Photo: Jehad Nga for the New York Times

MOGADISHU, Somalia — A veiled female journalist (who also happens to be wearing a snug denim skirt) sits in a soundproof studio with a fuzzy microphone in front of her face.

“Salaam Aleikum,” she says, greeting a man who has called in to the radio station.

“Yes, hello,” he replies anxiously. “I want to talk about pirates. These guys aren’t being treated fairly.”

Somalia's al Shabaab rebels have taken over radio stations in the cities under their control and often detain the few independent journalists who have not fled the country, reporters and rights groups say.

Journalists said al Shabaab -- which pledges allegiance to al Qaeda -- had closed a radio station in the southern city of Kismayu and seized one in Baydhaba in southwestern Somalia, the other main city under its control.

"They replaced the station in Kismayu with one that they use for their broadcasts. And they have taken over the one in Baydhaba," said Omar Faruk Osman, general secretary of the National Union of Somali Journalists.

"This is a crackdown on freedom of expression and media law."

Mogadishu — The Islamic administration of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen court in Kismayo town has ordered journalist Mohamed Salad Abdulle to leave the town within 36 hours on Monday.

Reports say that the journalist was ordered that he could not report in Lower and Middle Jubba regions in southern Somalia.

NAIROBI, Kenya — Last year Somalia's Radio Warsan was a pro-government station that vilified al-Qaida-linked insurgents. Today it is in the hands of the rebels as they battle the U.N.-backed government on the ground with guns and on the nation's airwaves with pro-jihad messages.

As the propaganda war intensifies in the battered Horn of Africa nation, the government is using a newly modernized radio station to get its own message across to more Somalis, and the U.N. is financing a new radio station. When Somalis tune in to the government station in insurgent-controlled territory, they tend to do so in secret to avoid being punished by the al-Shabab rebels, who routinely execute suspected government collaborators.

Both the government and al-Shabab are tapping into a culture in which entire families across the sprawling, arid country huddle around radios for news and entertainment.

Radio Warsan's director, Mohamed Moalin, says his station is open 15 hours per day and broadcasts Islamic lectures, Quran recitations and five news bulletins to convey one message: Islam is the solution.

Amanda Lindhout was held by Somali gunmen

Despite being kidnapped and traumatized by lawless gangsters in Somalia, freed freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout says she harbours no grudge against the wartorn country.

"It's very important for me to say I do not see the men who kidnapped me as a reflection of Somali society as a whole," Lindhout told a local community group honouring her in Calgary Sunday.

Reading from a prepared statement, Lindhout shared a glimpse of her ordeal.

It was the first time Lindhout has spoken before an audience about her ordeal. Last December, she issued a photo of herself posing next to a Christmas tree and a statement thanking a British security firm, their families and those who donated money for the pair's release.