In Ethiopia case, a response to WikiLeaks
Last week, we learned that Ethiopian journalist Argaw Ashine was facing possible arrest and needed to flee the country. During a 10-day period in September, he had been summoned three times by Ethiopian authorities and questioned about a reference to him in a cable sent by the U.S. Embassy in October 2009 and made public…
Two Ethiopian journalists detained on terrorism charges
New York, September 16, 2011–Authorities in Ethiopia arrested two independent journalists this week on accusations of involvement in a terrorism plot, bringing the total number of journalists imprisoned since June under the country’s far-reaching antiterrorism legislation to six, CPJ research shows.
Ethiopian journalist ID’d in WikiLeaks cable flees country
New York, September 14, 2011–U.S. diplomatic cables disclosed last month by WikiLeaks cited an Ethiopian journalist by name and referred to his unnamed government source, forcing the journalist to flee the country after police interrogated him over the source’s identity, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. It is the first instance CPJ has confirmed…
In Ethiopia, terrorism charges against five journalists
New York, September 7, 2011–Ethiopia filed terrorism charges on Tuesday against four independent journalists detained in the country since June and July, along with the editor of a U.S.-based news forum critical of the Addis Ababa government, according to local sources and news reports.
Terrorists? A look at two jailed Ethiopian journalists
At the end of June, Ethiopia’s Anti-Terror Task Force arrested nine people on charges of attempting to “destroy electrical and telecommunication infrastructures” with support from Ethiopia’s arch-enemy, Eritrea. Held under Ethiopia’s far-reaching antiterrorism law, only four of the suspects’ names have so far been revealed and two of them happen to be journalists.
UNHCHR grills Ethiopia on anti-terror law
This week, the Human Rights Committee of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights reviewed Ethiopia’s compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including its press freedom record. Peppered with questions about an indefensible record of abuse–jailing the second largest number of journalists in Africa and leading the continent in Internet censorship–representatives…
Release Swedish journalists immediately
New York, July 7, 2011–Following Ethiopian state television’s broadcast of a clip presenting jailed and injured Swedish journalists Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye as accomplices to terrorists, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Ethiopia to immediately release the two journalists.
Ethiopia detains two Swedish journalists
New York, July 5, 2011–Two Swedish journalists reporting on the activities of armed separatists operating in an oil-rich province of eastern Ethiopia have been detained without charge since Thursday in the Horn of Africa nation, according to news reports and government officials.Ethiopian security forces arrested photojournalist Johan Persson and reporter Martin Schibbye, contributors to the Sweden-based agency Kontinent,…