Ethiopia

At least six publications have had to close in recent months and around 30 journalists have fled abroad since the start of the year as a result of the biggest crackdown on the privately-owned press since 2005, one reflecting a government desire to make a clean sweep of independent media before parliamentary elections next May, local analysts say. In the latest development, Reporters Without...

The Committee to Protect Journalists has cndemned Monday's sentencing of Ethiopian journalist Temesghen Desalegn to three years' imprisonment on charges of defamation and incitement that date back to 2012. A court in Addis Ababa, the capital, convicted Temesgen on October 13 in connection with opinion pieces published in the now-defunct Feteh news magazine, according to news reports. He was...

An Ethiopian court on Monday convicted journalist and magazine owner Temesghen Desalegn in connection with a 2012 defamation case, according to news reports and local journalists. The Federal High Court in the capital, Addis Ababa, found Temesghen guilty of incitement, defamation, and false publication in connection with a series of opinion pieces published in Feteh ("Justice"), the journalist's...

Ethiopia’s federal supreme court Tuesday sentenced three magazine owners in absentia to more than three years in prison on charges of “inciting violent revolts, printing and distributing unfounded rumours and conspiring to unlawfully abolish the constitutional system of the country.” The three, who fled the country when the prosecution was mooted, are Addis Guday publisher Endalkachew...

Addis Guday ("Addis Affairs") photojournalist Aziza Mohamed has been in custody for two weeks in Etiopia without charge. Police arrested Aziza on July 18 while she was covering Muslim protests near Anwar Mosque in the capital Addis Ababa, local journalists told the Committee to Protect Journalists. She is being held at the Addis Ababa police headquarters. Police investigators presented Aziza...

The Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) today has insisted to Ethiopian Authorities that journalists are not terrorists following the warning by the Prime Minister to journalists to operate free from terrorists. According to the Ethiopian National Journalists Union (ENJU) a FAJ affiliate, Prime Minister Haile-Mariam Desalegn told a press conference Friday 18 July 2014 that Ethiopian...

The Ethiopian government should immediately drop politically motivated charges brought against 10 bloggers and journalists on July 17, 2014, under the country’s deeply flawed anti-terrorism law. The Ethiopian authorities arrested six of the bloggers and three journalists on April 25 and 26. They have been detained in Maekelawi, the Federal Police Crime Investigation Sector in Addis Ababa. The...

The Ethiopian government should end its politicised prosecution of nine Ethiopian journalists arrested in April, the Committee to Protect Journalists has demanded. The journalists and their lawyers were shut out of court room hearings in recent days. In hearings at the Arada First Instance Court in the capital Addis Ababa on Saturday and Monday, police said that they had wrapped up their...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has today strongly condemned the additional seven days detention time given to police by an Ethiopian court to investigate the case of the journalist, Elias Nigatu, who has been held since 26 May. According to the IFJ affiliate, the Ethiopian National Journalists Union (ENJU), Nigatu, who writes for Enku magazine, was arrested for publishing a...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has today severely criticised authorities in Ethiopia following the decision by a court to grant police nearly one more month to conduct investigations against the journalists and bloggers detained in the country last month. Three journalists and six bloggers were arrested on 25 and 26 April by police using an arrest warrant from a public...