jamal osman, a journalist working for "the guardian" (uk) and channel 4, suggested in an october 2012 editorial that one of the factors behind the spate of killings of media workers in somalia was graft amongst reporters. this was in sharp contrast to the widely held belief and cpj data suggesting that the assassinations and death threats bore the hallmarks of the islamist extremists. in a formal press statement, the national union of somali journalists (nusoj) characterized osman's editorial as "defamatory and libelous", and suggested that it represented a conscious effort to cast aspersions on the somali media and was "an attempt to divert the public attention by aiding the real criminals, which could contribute the killing of somali journalists to continue." the organization further indicated that "more than half of the cases took place in mogadishu and all have been targeted in line with their profession and the majority of them have been claimed by the shabab."