How
the US ‘war on terror’ has provided cover for laws that are being used to
silence dissident journalists.
March
18, 2013 (Aljazeera) –When the Paris-based media watchdog group, Reporters
Without Borders released its annual Press Freedom Index, few were surprised that
Ethiopia had dropped 11 places to 137.
Journalists
in the country have never truly been free to report however developments in the
region over the last few years have had a detrimental effect on the media
environment.
With
the disputed 2005 general election, the continued conflict with separatist
groups and the spectre of the Arab Spring arriving in the country – the
government in Addis Abba has been cracking down on the media
And
one of its most effective tools is a vague, far reaching anti-terrorism law that
has sentenced at least 11 journalists to harsh prison terms.
In
2009, former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s government passed the anti-terrorism
proclamation. In August last year Zenawi died but the legislation survived under
his successor Hailemaraiam Desalegn.
http://bcove.me/y18ucktc
Much of the reporting on Ethiopia these days is done
at a safe distance. According to media watchdogs, 49 journalists fled the
country between 2007 and 2012 to get away from a government that does not want
to talk about this issue. The Listening
Post made several interview requests but
were denied.
The
government did tell us that those in prison are there for their terrorist
activities and not for being journalists. With convictions stacking up however,
terrorism and critical journalism in Ethiopia are starting to look like one in
the same.
Reeyot
Alemu is one of those journalists – she has been sentenced to five years in
jail. Foreign reporters have also been charged under anti-terrorism laws for
daring to communicate with opposition groups. The Listening
Post’s Nic Muirhead takes a closer look at journalism under Ethiopia’s
anti-terrorism law.
| “After
all this persecution that the Ethiopian independent media has faced, most of us
have been exiled, there is a significant portion of us in prison and the
government has still not relented on its persecution, but still people
write.”Tamerat Feyisa, editor of Addis Neger |
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