Posts Tagged ‘Ethiopia’
September 10th, 2010
Opposition activists are urging people to
change their Facebook profile pictures to that of political prisoner
Birtukan Mideksa on 11 September. The opposition party leader is serving a life sentence after she was first arrested during
disputed elections in 2005. Mideksa was released after two years in prison, before being arrested again in 2008 after saying that her release was due to opposition pressure on the government. The protest has been timed to coincide with the beginning of the Ethiopian new year.
June 25th, 2010
Heather Murdock, a US journalist, has been
expelled from Ethiopia. Local reports suggest her work as an investigative journalist in the restive Ogaden province was the reason for her expulsion. There have been a number of recent skirmishes between government forces and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). Murdock had been working for the broadcaster
Voice of America (VOA) covering the aftermath of the general election. The Ethiopian government has recently enacted anti-terrorism legislation which empowers it to expel journalists which portray rebel groups in a favourable light and the authorities have been
blocking of Voice of America’s website and
jamming of its radio service in recent months.
March 30th, 2010
The Ethiopian government has been
accused of blocking the website of US broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) as a row over press intimidation continues to escalate in the Horn of Africa. Residents of the capital Addis Ababa have been unable to access the site since early on Sunday, reports Reuters. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s administration has yet to comment on the development. Earlier this month, the government accused the VOA radio service of broadcasting propaganda and revealed that it was
testing its ability to jam transmissions. Meles even compared the station to Radio Mille Collines, whose broadcasts were blamed for sparking the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
March 8th, 2010
Voice of America’s (VOA) Amharic-language radio broadcasts have been
blocked in Ethiopia. The Washington-based broadcaster has been informed by monitors that its news service in the East African state has been electronically-jammed, although it has not yet been able to identify the source. Ethiopia is preparing for a crucial parliament vote on 23 May and officials have described VOA as the “voice of the opposition”. The Ethiopian Communications Office has, however, denied any involvement.
February 3rd, 2010
Veteran Ethiopian journalist
Ezedin Mohamed, editor of Islamic paper Al Quds, was sentenced to one year in jail on the 30 January. According to CPJ, the sentence relates to Mohamed’s response to a 2008
Guardian interview with Meles Zenawi; Mohamad criticised the Prime Minister’s characterisation of the country as Orthodox Christian. Ezedin Mohamed and Al-Quds Publisher Maria Kadim were
previously jailed for two weeks in 2008, alongside Ibrahim Mohamed Ali, editor of another Islamic weekly Selafiyya for reporting on a government proposal to restrict the use of headscarves for Muslim girls in public schools.
Ethiopia’s record on press freedom remains poor, Ali and
Asrat Wedajo, editor of the country’s largest Oromo language paper Seife Nebelbal before it was shut down in 2005, were subsequently sentenced to one year in prison in September 2009 for ‘coverage of sensitive topics’ (CPJ).
. Two Eritrean journalists, Saleh Idris Gama and Tesfalidet Kidane Tesfazghi, have also been detained without charge since they were captured in Somalia ‘on suspicion of terrorism’; the Ethiopian government has repeatedly declined to provide any information about the location, health or legal status of the two men.
January 27th, 2010
Freedom of expression is stifled in Africa’s youngest nation, says Peter Martell
(more…)
August 21st, 2009
Ethiopia’s popular singer, Teddy Afro, was freed from prison last Thursday after serving 18 months of a two-year sentence because of good behaviour. Teddy, whose real name is Tewodros Kassahun, was found guilty of the killing of a homeless man in a hit-and-run incident in 2007 but denied driving the car. Opposition parties and supporters say Teddy had been jailed for his criticism to the government in some of his songs and hundreds protested outside the court during his trial. Read more here
August 11th, 2009
The Ethiopian government has tried to force private Kenyan broadcaster Nation Television (NTV) to drop a four-part exclusive report on separatist rebels in southern Ethiopia. NTV aired the first two parts of the programme which led Ethiopia’s ambassador to Kenya to accuse the Nation Media Group of giving a platform to a terrorist organization. Read more here
