The U.S.-backed genocidal regime in Ethiopia has expelled an American journalist on Thursday. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports the following.
Heather Murdock had been reporting with the U.S. international broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) in the eastern region of Harar, near an area where there was reported skirmishes between the army and rebels of the separatist Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), according to the same sources. The Ethiopian government has denied journalists independent access to the restive Ogaden province, which neighbors the Harar region, and attempted to censor an exclusive report on the rebels last year, according to CPJ research. Under Ethiopia’s draconian anti-terrorism law, journalists risk as many as 20 years in prison if authorities deem their reporting favorable to armed rebels and banned opposition groups.
VOA confirmed to CPJ that Murdock had left the country. Assistants to Ethiopian government spokesmen Bereket Simon and Shemelis Kemal told CPJ the officials were not available for comment. The Ethiopian government announced plans to officially jam VOA in March, after reports that there had been electronic jamming of the station’s Amharic-language shortwave broadcasts and that its Web site had been blocked in the country.
“We condemn the expulsion of Heather Murdock,” said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. “Ethiopian authorities have for years used the threat of expulsion to induce self-censorship among foreign journalists working in the country.”
Murdock arrived in Ethiopia last month after she was expelled from Yemen in April following a reporting trip to strongholds of Yemen’s armed separatist Southern Movement, according to news reports. In Ethiopia, she covered the country’s general election and its aftermath, among other topics.
6 thoughts on “Ethiopia’s U.S.-backed regime expels American journalist”
What action is President Obama going to take?
Hmm… A mafia group will only work with you or any one else as long as you are working loyally like a slave for their own illegal criminal agendas and practices.
Independent and neutral work and behavior for the general public welfare and good morality is a crime against Mafianism and its self serving mafia constitution mercilessly punishable by expulsions using guns and bans.
WE MUST CLAIM OUR STOLEN VOTES AND GO A LONG WAY TO GET THEM BY ALL MEANS POSSIBLE.
“Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”
Benjamin Franklin
Any American, British, or Canadian citizen who has failed to cooperate with the evil schemes of the Woyanne government should know ahead of time that his/her government will not protect him/her from being expelled or imprisoned, or even killed by the blood-thirsty regime of Meles Seitanawi (Zenawi).
Washington and London prefer working closely with a dictatorial government to working with a democratic one. In this case, Heather Murdock is a lucky journalist that she has not been imprisoned for 20 years or even killed by Woyanne’s death squad without any crime that she has committed.
President Obama has to come forward and denounce publicly the expulsion of this American-born journalist, Heather Murdock from Ethiopia. The crime which is being committed every day in Ethiopia by the unlawful Woyanne government is bigger than the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that has destroyed thousands of marine lives. Grieved by such massive oil spill in the history of America, President Obama has quickly rendered BP responsible for the oil mess of such magnitude. However, who will be responsible for the destructions of millions of Ethiopians by Washington’s close friend, Meles Seitanawi? Are the Ethiopian lives less important than the lives of the Louisiana oysters? Come-on, Mr. President; please help Ethiopia, as we Ethiopians in the United States voted for you to be the President of the United States, the most powerful nation in the world. We are not asking you to send American soldiers to Africa to liberate Ethiopia, but we are asking you to stop sending money to Ethiopia that would prolong the times of Meles Seitanawi to remain in his office. We don’t want Meles Seitanawi to govern Ethiopia; we want someone who is democratically elected govern this land of 80 million Ethiopians.
Brother Elias!!!!
I am not sure about the real motives of such reporters. She was stirring things up in Yemen and was deported from there. And now she was trying to stir things up in Ethiopia to report on the ‘glorious’ rebels who are hell-bent on nothing short of withering brotherly people. I am very suspicious of her that she may be running errands from oil and natural gas speculators here in the USA who are pissed off for not getting a piece of the pie from the proven oil and natural gas reserve in the Ogaden. I guarantee you if this ‘Jason’ from Adwa gives a slice of area for these pissed off speculators, all these ‘reporting from the war front’ will stop faster than you all know what. There was another rabid dog reporter last year and now comes another loser. It is like a group of lions cornering a big buffalo. They will attack and attack until they bring it down. We are being told that she was trying to report from a war front. Report what? Believe me I am no fan of this frog face serial killer and his cronies from Adwa. I wish he and his gangs were not even born. There could have been a much better way as brother Professor Al indicated so many times on this community water hole called Ethiopian Review. Insha Allah!!!!
They will again expell the Ambassador himslef. Woyenae is shameless unless the US opens its purposely closed eyes.
Meles and his TPLF still believe that they can hide their dirty secrets and crimes in Ogaden from the rest of the World.There are millions of Ogadenis inside and outside of Ogaden who are eyewitness to every crime they commit.