Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is dismayed to learn that Amare Aregawi, the editor of the big-circulation weekly Reporter, was arrested on 22 August in Addis Ababa and was then illegally transferred to a prison in Gondar, 750 km north of the capital, in connection with a libel case brought by the Gondar-based Dashen brewery.
“The Ethiopian government reminds the press about the law so often that it is hard to understand how it allows prosecutors to violate it so openly,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Amare’s unjustified arrest exposes the unfairness of legislation that allows journalists to be imprisoned for defamation. His newspaper dared to question a big company’s practices. Now he, like the reporter who wrote the offending article before him, are paying the price for having the courage to do their job properly and serve the public interest. He should be released at once.”
Police from the Amhara region arrested Amare on the afternoon of 22 August at his office in the Addis Ababa headquarters of Media and Communication Centre, a company that owns two well-known weeklies, the Amharic-language Reporter and the English-language The Reporter.
Journalists who were present at his arrest told Reporters Without Borders that the police were also looking for deputy editor Eshete Assefa and Teshome Neku, the young reporter who wrote the article last month quoting two former Dashen brewery employees as saying they were wrongfully dismissed. Neither Eshete nor Teshome were in the office at the time.
Amare, who ran Ethiopia’s public television after the fall of the Derg dictatorship in 1991, was initially taken to the headquarters of the Addis Ababa police. He was later transferred to Gondar where he appeared in court yesterday. A member of the newspaper’s staff told Reporters Without Borders that the prosecutor and judge offered to release Amare on bail in Gondar, but he refused on the grounds that it was illegal for him to have been taken there.
Under a new press law that was adopted last month, defamation cases are supposed to be tried in the place where the alleged offence took place. As Reporter’s registered headquarters is in Addis Ababa, the case should be heard in the capital and there were no grounds for taking Amare to such a remote location.
A few days after the article appeared, Teshome was arrested and taken to Gondar, where he was freed on bail after three days. The judge who ordered his release told the prosecutor that Teshome should be tried before a court in Addis Ababa because the newspaper was duly registered there.
A second story about the unfair dismissals at the brewery, published by Reporter on 20 July, quoted two representatives of the Confederation of Ethiopian Employee Associations (CEEA), who accused the brewery’s management of breaking up its union, firing its leader, setting up a new, company-controlled union and other illegal practices.
25 thoughts on “Newspaper editor Amare Aregawi arrested”
ለማንም ኢትዮጵያዊ (ወይም ለማንም ፍጡር) ሲበድል ለእውነት ካልቆምን እያንዳንዱ በየተራ በዲክታተሩ መታሰር አይቀሬ ነው::
If this news is real it is good( Essseeeeyeeeeeee) and simply shows the trend project of Meles Syetanawi that doesn’t even care for the Tigrians TPLF members that we have seen the death of Haylom and knife and the removal of Seye and Geberu and others. It just follows that Meles Seytanawi doent even care to anyone when it comes to its power. In addition to that it just simply shows that the so called Tigrians TPLF memers are just pupputs to meles sytanwi but can’t make any decision or cant confront meles sytanwi but simply carriers of his destructive policy. On the other hand it shows that the so called non-Tigrian who are serving the TPLF mafia group are also waiting their day to be kicked out by meles Seytanwi.
Actually, I remember that when meles Sytanwi personally insults HODAM Addis Leggesse as “ any ordinary farmer is a whole lot better than you” and addis legesse didn’t even confront instead he faces down to the earth and walks away from meles seytanwi before meles seytanwi would done any further measure on him, such as taking down him to prison or killing him.
Look this simply shows that not only Ethiopia as a country the whole stupid party TPLF is controlled by one person who is Meles Seytanwi, shame on the members of tplf and shame on the servers of tplf and shame on the hodam cadres of tplf….
By the way if amare aregawi who is a member of TPLF is arrested to play on the public …we don’t care about the poor propaganda of weyane, we will continue to fight the weyane gangsters while they are playing a poker on Ethiopian people…regardless if he got arrested it is a good news if not amare argawi will be arrested along with main crime orchestrators of weyane including Meles Seytanwi and other HODAM members and servers of Weyane…..
Death to Weyane members and supporters!!!!!!
Another BS fromw weyanes..they r just pretedning that they treat everybody same…the truth of the matter is aregawi is part and parcel of the oppressing machinery that amassed millions thanks to the ethnic minorty regime in Ethiopia…dont fall for this crap wegenochie!!
This guy has been part of the woyane propaganda machine. It is a complex task to read the woyane gang as they have become very paranoid in recent times. We are witnessing a tell tell sign of PACK AND RUN.
It is a fake jail for public consumption!
He is their mousepiece. Woyane is kidddddddddddddddddingggg
mot le Woyane, we will win!!!!!
they are pretending
It is just a fake game as usual,TPLF s dirty thrick to make this the most hated guy, Amare suppose to be a “Press Hero”.
Weyanne has done it before when they arrested thier own spy-weyannes cadre,Ledetu Ayalew. TPLF has no any more chances to fool ethiopian people. It is also to divert our focus from TPLF fashist regime. Let us united & work together to hast the down full of TPLF. Do not spend our valuable time by giving attention, discussion on such false story. Even if it is true who cares for the dead fish. Amare is a TPLF member.
I don’t think for a minute this is for real. This is just another ploy by the TPLF thugs to burnish Amare Aregawi’s credibility as a fair minded, independent news maverick. The funny thing is, they can’t even lie straight. They tell us he was picked up from his office in Addis NOT by the ‘Federalis’, but by ‘the Amhara region police’, what a load of crap! This is also a coded warning to the people of Tigrai that, no matter where you are, the Amharas could always come and get you, so you better stick with us.
Amare Aregawi is one of the most dangerous and cunning TPLF mouth pieces, that was able to brand himself as an independent voice on some non issues, to gain the trust of the masses when spouting pro TPLF propaganda. One thing we all need to understand is, no matter what the TPLF thugs are pretending to do to him; when the chips are down, Amare Aregawi will throw his lot with the TPLF. This is called subtle infiltration. You see, unlike the editors of Aiga and Walta, who spout TPLF lies and nonsense 24×7, Amare is allowed to criticize TPLF on some lightweight non issues so that he can fool ER and EMF that he is their side too.
I am amazed that ER and EMF are posting non news like this without doing their proper homework first.
It is unfortunate Amare Aragewie has to taste the life beyond bars like many other journalist before him under the TPLF regime. But this one looks fishy to me.
Amare has been enjoying unprecedented access to information and freedom of press for the last 13 or so years like no other journalist or publisher in that country. And I didn’t see him writing/publishing anything different this time. What Woyane is doing is to show the public that even their own buddy can be jailed for whatever charge they brought to him. This is more of lame PR fiasco, woyane style. Crap.
Eliyase… Do you bleive that? Weyanene atemenut weshete new aletaserem
woyane did it to revive the dying news letter Reporter and to strengthen him.They are preparing him for the upcoming election and use him in weakening Andenet and G7 by disseminating systematic and false woyane propaganda trough Amahare Aregawee’s Reporter.
I know this guy very well he is like MegaNet corporation in the free press industry.
even if he is arrested after few day he will be released it is weyyane system . MOTE LE WEYYANE
It is a story fabricated by woyane and his agents.Amare Argawi is a hard core woyane
I don’t say ‘Esyee’ what ever Amare’s stand was in the past! We have to stand by his side and demand his freedom. He is Human,Ethiopian, and a Jornalist that should be the standard. I hope he will learn from this and stand for his fellow Ethiopians.
Teddy’s lawyer is also still in jail!!As a matter fact, he was released the same day. Elias, How come you failed to post the release?
I am glad everyone did not believe the story regarding Amare’s jail trip to Gondar. Unfortunately, Doctors with out borders failed for it.
Drama after Drama after Drama!!
Crap! Are we supposed to believe that The Reporter is any different from Addis Zemen or Weyin, or that Amare is any different from Bereket, or that Dashen Brewery is Amhara Regional State’s property and not Woyane’s? This is silly if not sillier than claiming Meles zenawi is Ethiopia’s PM!
Democratic governance perpetuates a fine struggle between two rights: The government’s obligation to protect national security; and the people’s right to know, based on journalists’ ability to access information. Governments sometimes need to limit access to information considered too sensitive for general distribution. But journalists in democracies are fully justified in pursuing such information.
I am really disappointed to have to learn that Amare has been jailed or prisoner.
WHAT is even pity is to read comments that are very extreme and parochial.
It seems that people are happy to see him kept in jail not for the cause of what he has done or transgress, but because he is mere from Tigray. In the iota of some of the rubbish writers all tigrians regardless of their stand, be it a supporter or otherwise, they will be
Seen as TPLf thugs, this is what I call spoilt politics .Look, pose a moment, the government is capable of taking any one to jail, particularly if they think that some one is against them. It does not matter who he/she is that being the case, I do not buy the idea that amares imprisonment is a mere political gimmick. For me it is a ridiculous idea and is indeed a travesty of justice. Please, please come out of this UGLY politics and try to synergise with the reality. Listen, Amare is not bigger than SEYE! The government is merciless and unflinching. I can see complete arrogance and deliberate violations of individual rights in Ethiopia. Let us look in terms of that see and presentable solution out of this guck mire. I pray for Amare to be released unconditionally. I believe he should not be imprisoned for what he has written on substantial evidence. Journalists should not be swayed by public opinion, only by the pursuit of truth, as close as they can get to it. A democracy allows the press to go about its business of collecting and reporting the news without fear or favor from the government.
• A free press informs the public, holds leaders accountable, and provides a forum for debate of local and national issues.
• Democracies foster the existence of a free press. An independent judiciary, civil society with rule of law, and free speech all support a free press. A free press must have legal protections.
Having said that, the government should come to the habit of being criticized. It should adopt a more transparent media that should be capable of helping the development endeavors of the country. I think a flow of information (free and uncontrolled) should be considered as a framework of a development and good governance.
The government should not squander resources by imprisoning journalists, should they present their arguments and counter arguments with factual information.
PLEASE DO NOT KILL THE MESSANGER,FOCUS WHERE THE PROBLEM LIES!
Thanks
berhane
Amare Aregawi of Reporter arrested?
What more proof does any one need now that even the slightest critique of woyane is not tollerated?
That is why many people argued in the past that the woyane leaders are “different breeds of Mafia thugs” who will canibalize themsleves and will not hesitate to rape their own mothers or sisters if it means power and money!
Oh My Gooooooooooood!!!!!!!
And Wodel Ahiya BeLela Wodel Ahiya Tasere.
It will not be a news at all. Ahya Leahya Biraget …… all the same.
Amare Aregawi is 100% TPLF so we are not fooled by this drama.TPLF cadres have developed expertise in cheating and can go on cheating but we wont be fooled. We wont be fooled by TPLF drama., after all they are born to lie and cheat.
After all Amare Aregawi was the one who worked hand in glove with TPLF to kill the free press. By eliminating the other press his newspaper was distributed without any competition. That way he amassed wealth. Now we herd that he is in prison all we do is wait and see the justice system he had been defending for the last 18 years shall set him freee.Ha Ha Ha We know he will walk out as a free man soon thanks to his party TPLF.
Elias! How on the earth U failed to report his release. Right now he is at his office .This was fake for frustrating reporters from reporting the truth.
አያሁልኝ አይጋ ዌብሳይት ያወጣው ጽሑፍ? የአይጥ ምስክር ዲንቢጥ ይሉታል ይሄ ነው::
Amare Aregawi has served as a Woyanee chief propagandist for more than two decades. Amare’s only mistake against the Meles camp was his indecisiveness when the two wings of Woyanee started to eat each other.
During the 2005 Election Amare not only cheered his Woyanee side but also did everything against the CUD supporters who were jailed, tortured even killed. As a result, Amare was awarded a large tract of land in Bole where he build a media complex and lots of posh suits that he can rent for hundreds of US dollars to European and African international employees. Not bad for a young Woyanee who arrived 17 years ago with only taterred shirt and qumTa from Dedebit.
Only a nave Ethiopian will buy this Woyanee fiction. Most likely Amare is visiting the palaces of Gonder and looking for fresh investements in hotels and bars on the busy Sudan-Mekele highway. Don’t be surprised if the Woyanees say, “he is released on bail,” in two weeks.
But poor Teddy Afro will languish in jail for many years to come because Teddy was not smart enough to sing in Tigrigna.
Update on Amare Aregawi Case
(Aigaforum 08/27/08):-The case against Amare Aregawi is about defamation of the Dashen beer brewery and false accusation. His transfer to Gondar was done according to the regional and federal law. Law enforcement was involved as far as his transfer to Gonder goes. We have not heard yet about the legality of Amare’s transfer via the accuser’s vehicle. However the court is asking Ato Amare to cooperate in providing sources for the said story. Ato Amare has been released on bail.
Note: there is a deep seated anger towards news paper owners printing sensational stories in order to promote their news paper and make money. Such acts may be tolerable in the Western world but in Ethiopia where democracy and rule of law are yet to be well understood it is challenging. The Reporter newspaper may be guilty of such deeds but we think the Reporter by and large is a responsible newspaper worth defending if not for anything else to promote the democratic process an inch forward.
We thank both the Reporter and officials for their cooperation to inform the public. Aigaforum 8/27/08
every body knows this is woyane system how did we know aregawi arrested they are full of shitttttttt