NAIROBI - Eritrea has arrested at least nine journalists with state-owned media since mid-November in an apparent new crackdown, a global press freedom watchdog said Wednesday.
A week after alleging that at least nine others, including three journalists, had died in Eritrean custody over the past 20 months, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it was “appalled” by the new arrests.
RSF said those arrested work for Eri-TV, Radio Dimtsi Hafash (Voice of the Broad Masses) and the Eritrean News Agency and were suspected of ties with journalists who have fled the country and are active in opposition circles.
“Reporters Without Borders is appalled by a new round-up of journalists by the Eritrean government,” the Paris-based group said in a statement received here, adding it was deeply concerned for the safety of the detainees.
They “are being held at undisclosed locations in conditions that are probably extremely harsh,” it said, adding that: “terror reigns again among journalists in Eritrea.”
RSF said it had learned that security forces had been going to the information ministry, where employees of state-owned media work, and questioning staff there without any explanation.
It said it believed the detainees were being held in a detention center in Agip, south of the port of Massawa.
But Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu dismissed the suggestions those detained were still in custody.
“It was a routine matter and they have been released,” he told AFP in Asmara.
However, he refused to discuss the specifics of the RSF claims.
“It is no problem, they can say whatever they want,” Ali Abdu said.
Last week, RSF said it had “credible and serious” reports that nine of dozens of inmates at another camp, the Eiraeiro military detention facility in Northern Red Sea region, had died after being subjected to harsh treatment.
The Eritrean government, which shuttered all independent media in 2001, declined to comment on the allegation.
Eritrea is regularly accused of human rights abuses by international organizations and vehemently denies such charges, accusing its critics of lacking standing and information to support their allegations.
RSF rates Eritrea the third worst country in the world for press freedom, ahead of only North Korea and Turkmenistan, while the Committee to Protect Journalists says Eritrea is one of the world’s top five jailers of journalists.
Eritrea has at least 22 detained journalists, is Africa’s biggest prison for the press and the third biggest in the world, after China and Cuba, according to RSF.
