136 journalists jailed worldwide
As of December 1, 2009 | » Read the accompanying report: "FREELANCERS UNDER FIRE"

As of December 1, 2009 | » Read the accompanying report: "FREELANCERS UNDER FIRE"
Read the accompanying report: "Online and in jail"
January 30, 2008
His Excellency Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
c/o Embassy of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia to the United States
3506 International Drive, NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
Via hand and facsimile: (202) 587-0195
Dear Prime Minister,
We are writing to express our great concern about the government's denial of publishing licenses to five independent Ethiopian journalists freed last year from prison. We are calling on you to use all your influence to remove such administrative restraints, which contradict the government's public assurances last year that former prisoners would be allowed to resume their work.
December 4, 2007
The Hon. Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20520
Via Facsimile: 202 647-2283
Dear Secretary Rice,
In advance of your meeting with Ethiopian officials in Addis Ababa, the Committee to Protect Journalists would like to draw your attention to our concerns regarding press freedom conditions there.
You may know that 15 Ethiopian journalists were recently released from prison, but this development belies the country's sustained record of contempt for independent media, which manifests itself in a variety of legal and administrative restraints. The 15 jailed journalists were sentenced on trumped-up charges such as genocide in connection with the media's coverage of Ethopia's 2005 post-election unrest.
September 10, 2007
His Excellency Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
c/o Embassy of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia to the United States
3506 International Drive, NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
Via Hand and Facsimile: (202) 587-0195
Dear Prime Minister,
We are writing to express our deep concern about the whereabouts, legal status and health of Eritrean journalists Tesfalidet Kidane Tesfazghi and Saleh Idris Gama of Eritrean state broadcaster Eri-TV. Official statements and videotape indicate that your government has been holding them incommunicado after their arrests by Kenyan authorities late last year during fighting in Somalia.