Mass detention signals shrinking press freedom In Ethiopia

 

At least 18 media employees have been arrested across Ethiopia within two weeks alone.

On April 26th, an official from Ethiopia's attorney general's office took to state media to express his disappointment with what he saw as a lack of police action in combating disinformation and hate speech.

 

That was interpreted as a terrible omen by a lot of journalists in the country.

 

"I knew a crackdown on the press was coming when I heard the call," an Addis Ababa-based journalist told Al Jazeera on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to be identified. "I'd heard rumors that the government wanted to rein in the press, particularly digital content providers. The only remaining question was how many of us will be imprisoned."

 

That forecast has turned out to be correct.

 

The Ethiopian Media Authority, which is operated by the government, claimed on April 29th that it has filed criminal charges against at least 25 media outlets.

 

Ethiopian police raided local newsrooms earlier this month, detaining 19 persons, including journalists, magazine editors, and talk show hosts.

 

“We reiterate that Ethiopia’s media law clearly prohibits pre-trial detention for any alleged offence committed through media,” said Daniel Bekele, head of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, a public institution. “All detained media personnel should be released.”

 

In addition, on May 13th, Tom Gardner, a correspondent for The Economist, was ejected from the nation.

 

At least a dozen of the arrests are tied to critical reporting on the Ethiopian army's clashes with militants in the Amhara area. Furthermore, security forces in the region have jailed over 4,500 anti-government protesters and opposition politicians who are opposed to efforts to demobilize ethnic Amhara militias.

 

The arrests bring the total number of journalists detained in Ethiopia to 22 this year. The detainees have been accused by the authorities of exacerbating the bloodshed at a time when the country is ripped apart by conflict.

“The right to free speech doesn’t permit one to tarnish the honour of individuals, communities, the government or the country,” said Gizachew Muluneh, spokesman for the Amhara regional government, in a statement on Facebook. “Calling for ethnic and religious clashes and pushing extremist agendas are unforgivable crimes and cannot be considered free speech.”

 

Press freedom groups, on the other hand, dispute the authorities' claims, claiming that the detentions are part of a larger pattern.

 

“CPJ has documented a drastic decline in press freedom in Ethiopia over the last three years,” said Angela Quintal, head of the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) Africa programme. “This decline has accelerated during the ongoing civil war. Numerous journalists have been arrested and detained without trial or for prolonged pre-charge periods.”

 

Ethiopian journalists have considered resigning their employment or moving to neighboring nations as a result of the pressure. Some journalists have reduced their reporting and have chosen to write stories without bylines.

 

Reversal on press freedom

It's a far cry from the predictions made only a few years ago.

 

The country approved a controversial and ambiguously worded anti-terrorist proclamation in 2009, which was used to sentence notable journalists to hefty prison sentences on terrorism allegations.

 

Akemel Negash, an Ethiopian journalist, recalls the time period. His coverage of Muslim protests in 2012 landed him in the clutches of the government, forcing him to abandon the country. He claimed the outbreak of war in late 2020 brought back memories of the country's recent history, where he is currently editor-in-chief of the local Amba Digital news site.

 

“[When war broke out] the government made things clear for journalists by saying ‘you are either with us or against us,’ as George W Bush did during his invasion of Afghanistan,” Akemel told Al Jazeera. “The message was either you report what the state wants you to report, or you become a state enemy. We found it extremely dangerous to carry out our work with such hostility.”

 

However, in 2018, Abiy Ahmed, the country's new Prime Minister, ordered the release of tens of thousands of political inmates, including journalists, with the promise of allowing them to work freely.

 

Exiled journalists returned to Ethiopia and set up shop as a result of the surge of optimism. In 2018, a flurry of reforms saw the launch of a slew of new local newspapers, television stations, and digital news outlets.

 

Ethiopia also had no journalists imprisoned at the end of the year, the first time since 2004.

 

Ethiopia, on the other hand, has begun to reverse its advances by 2020. Several journalists were arrested and critical radio and television networks were shut down.

 

Civil war erupted in the country's Tigray region in November of that year. With the army's full mobilization, the press community's tolerance for dissenting voices had all but vanished.

 

During the first week of the fighting, police detained a half-dozen journalists.

 

“It beggars belief that a mere three years ago during World Press Freedom Day in Addis Ababa, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed boasted to the world that there was not a single Ethiopian journalist behind bars,” Quintal added. “And here we are in May 2022, Ethiopia is back to mass arrests and arbitrary detentions of journalists.”

 

Government propaganda outlets began openly referring to foreign correspondents as mercenaries, and local journalists as traitors, reminiscent of the pre-2018 era.

 

To prevent the flow of information from the conflict zone to global audiences, Ethiopia severed communications to the Tigray region and barred journalists and aid workers from travelling there.

In January 2021, in the midst of the media blackout, Ethiopian military shot and killed Tigray-based reporter Dawit Kebede Araya, the first death in the local press community since 1998.

 

Despite the media ban, journalists were able to uncover the war's horrors, including government massacres against civilians.

 

Abiy and his men were subjected to heightened scrutiny and criticism. In response, Ethiopia's prime minister made a call to Ethiopians in February 2021, encouraging them to avoid "tarnishing our country's name."

 

The prime minister condemned some citizens, accusing them of sympathizing with the insurgents and collaborating with foreign powers to distribute false information and plot the country's demise.

 

Abiy was referring to the country's journalists, according to Akemel Negash.

 

"In my judgment, the prime minister's appeal was an ultimatum to journalists who refused to help the government define its story," Akemel said. "As a result, journalists began to evacuate the nation or refrain from covering the conflict."

 

 

 

Simon Marks, a reporter for the New York Times, was sacked from the newspaper the following month. His expulsion preceded a wave of arrests, including those of a dozen journalists of the Addis Ababa-based Awlo Media newsroom on June 19th 2021.

 

Any critical coverage received a swift reprimand. Licensing was cancelled, newsrooms were raided by cops, equipment was seized, and journalists were arrested and taken to jail.

 

Ethiopia has jailed at least 46 members of its own local press by the end of 2021, including newscasters Bikila Amenu and Dessu Dulla of the Oromia News Network, who are accused of plotting against the government. According to Ethiopia's penal code, if convicted of the offence, they could face the death penalty.

 

 

Prior to declaring all-out war, Ethiopia's Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister guided the country's rise from the bottom quarter of the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) worldwide press freedom rating to 99th place in 2020.

 

Ethiopia is presently ranked 114th in the world.

 

"The current environment for the press is as awful as, if not worse than, what we saw before Abiy's rule," said Tazebew Assefa, a board member at the Ashara Media newspaper.

 

Police stormed Ashara's headquarters in Bahir Dar, the Amhara regional capital, on May 19th, detaining five of the network's staffers.

 

“The government had wanted to shut us down for over a year due to our coverage of corruption and other issues that state media typically ignores,” Tazebew said. “They are now actively muzzling the private press, but that isn’t a solution. In fact, it may serve to push disenfranchised people to other forms of struggle, including armed struggle.”

 

 Source: Aljazeera