
Ethiopia’s arrest of three journalists in August and September continues a pattern of detaining journalists amid the country’s ongoing state of emergency.
Those arrested are:
The three journalists were initially detained at the Federal Police Crime Investigation Center in the capital of Addis Ababa, but have since been transferred to a temporary detention center at a military camp in Awash Arba.
Ethiopia declared a six-month state of emergency on August 4, 2023, in response to the conflict in northern Amhara state involving federal government forces and the Fano, an armed militia, according to media reports. Since then, CPJ has documented the detention of at least four other journalists in Addis Ababa, two of whom remain detained, also in Awash Arba.
“The detention of journalists at a military camp, under unclear judicial oversight, is a deeply worrying sign of the depths to which Ethiopia’s regard for the media has sunk,” said CPJ sub-Saharan Africa representative, Muthoki Mumo.
More Africa press freedom news
* Angolan journalist Carlos Alberto jailed for criminal defamation
* CPJ urges Uganda to investigate assaults on journalists covering opposition leader

Mexican journalist Jesús Gutiérrez Vergara was shot dead in a residential area in the northern city of San Luis Río Colorado, near the U.S. border, in the early hours of September 25.
Gutiérrez, the founder and editor of Notiface, a Facebook-based news website, was talking with four off-duty policemen when shots were fired from a vehicle, killing the journalist and one officer, and wounding the other three.
The city’s mayor, Santos González Yescas said that three suspects had been arrested. The mayor said the attack was directed at the policemen and Gutiérrez had walked up to greet them when they were all shot. CPJ has been unable to confirm whether the reporter was working at the time.
“Although the arrest of three suspects one day after the attack is a welcome move in a country where the vast majority of press killings go unpunished, it is vital that authorities determine the motive behind the shootings and whether there was any link to Gutiérrez’s work,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, CPJ’s Mexico representative.
Mexico has long been the Western Hemisphere’s deadliest country for journalists.
We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.