Meles Zenawi was preaching about the need to expand telecommunications technology in Africa at a recent conference, while his regime is known as one of the worst obstacles for the growth of technology in Ethiopia, as the report below shows.
“From now on, we will organise activities every 12 March to condemn cyber-censorship throughout the world,” Reporters Without Borders said. “A response of this kind is needed to the growing tendency to crack down on bloggers and to close websites.”
“Today, the first time this day is being marked, we are giving all Internet users the opportunity to demonstrate in places were protests are not normally possible. We hope many will come and protest in virtual versions of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, Cuba’s Revolution Square or on the streets of Rangoon, in Burma. At least 62 cyber-dissidents are currently imprisoned worldwide, while more than 2,600 websites, blogs or discussions forums were closed or made inaccessible in 2007.”
The press freedom organisation added: “Our list of ‘Internet Enemies’ has also been updated with the addition of two countries – Ethiopia and Zimbabwe. And we are offering an new version of our Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents.”
Reporters Without Borders learned last night that UNESCO has withdrawn its patronage for today’s Online Free Expression Day (read our press release).
To denounce government censorship of the Internet and to demand more online freedom, Reporters Without Borders is calling on Internet users to come and protest in online versions of nine countries that are Internet enemies during the 24 hours from 11 a.m. tomorrow, 12 March, to 11 a.m. on 13 March (Paris time, GMT +1). Anyone with Internet access will be able to create an avatar, choose a message for their banner and take part in one of the cyber-demos taking place in Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea, North Korea, Tunisia, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.
There are 15 countries in this year’s Reporters Without Borders list of “Internet Enemies” – Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. There were only 13 in 2007. The two new additions to the traditional censors are both to be found in sub-Saharan Africa: Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.
“This is not at all surprising as these regimes regularly hound the traditional media,” Reporters Without Borders says in the introduction to its report.“Internet penetration is very slight, but nevertheless sufficient to give them a few nightmares. They follow the example of their seniors and draw on the full arsenal of online censorship methods including legislation, monitoring Internet cafés and controlling ISPs.”
There is also a supplementary list of 11 “countries under watch.” They are Bahrain, Eritrea, Gambia, Jordan, Libya, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Unlike the “enemies,” these countries do not imprison bloggers or censor the Internet massively. But they are sorely tempted and abuses are common. Many of them have laws that they could use to gag the Internet if they wanted. And the judicial or political authorities often use anti-terrorism laws to identify and monitor government opponents and activists expressing themselves online.
“The hunting down of independent thinkers online is all the more effective as several major western companies have colluded with governments in pinpointing ‘trouble-makers’,” the reports says. “US company Yahoo! apologised in 2007 for a ‘misunderstanding’ which ended in journalist Shi Tao being sent to prison for ten years. The company has been responsible for the imprisonment of a total of four Chinese cyber-dissidents. It was apparently willing to ‘obey local laws’ that forced it to identify Internet users deemed to be dangerous.”
Finally, a new version of the Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents is available in French and English on the Reporters Without Borders website (www.rsf.org). It offers practical advice and techniques on how to start up a blog, how to blog for anonymously and how to circumvent censorship. It also includes the accounts of bloggers from countries such as Egypt and Burma.
The cyber-demonstration was devised and produced by the Saatchi & Saatchi advertising agency.
While almost all of its heroic journalists living currently in exile in the four-corners of the globe, the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association (EFJA) is again obliged to mark its anniversary in the wilderness!
EFJA is today 16 years old! We therefore raise our voice louder to congratulate all our members at home and in exile for their fortitude and forbearance in the face of the state-instigated, ceaseless harassments and persecutions during the last decade and half!
EFJA’s role of guiding and coordinating the tasks of the free press journalists in Ethiopia had already been brought to an absolute standstill! The free press, which is the most vibrant, alternative voice of the masses in Ethiopia, was throttled in July 2005 by the violent actions of the tyrannical government of Meles Zenawi.
The dictator then did put more than 23 Free Press Journalists behind bars, charged them with crimes whose convictions include life sentence and death penalties, and in addition abolished the free press publications with a stroke of pen!
We, the Free Press Journalists in exile, are today taking ourselves the solemn duty of breaking a sunder the deadly silence which the myopic, ethno-centered Dictator has imposed on us!
We shall break apart deadly silence not only with our objectively recognizable existence as one of dynamic agents of democracy in Ethiopia. But also as still alert and active journalists of the free press by organizing a concretely functioning, Alternative Media of Information for the people of Ethiopia (AMIE)!
We take this opportunity to call upon all members of EFJA and IFJ, upon all professional colleagues and associations, to renew their traditional help and cooperation to enable us, the EFJA-members to launch a short-wave-radio- broadcasting service in Europe and to reach with it, the heart and minds of our people in Ethiopia and in Diaspora.
The iconic representation of Ethiopians in the wake of the widespread famines of the 70’s is the shocking picture of the emaciated children on the lapses of the yet starved, skinny mothers! Those gruesome images of the cruelest economic deprivations of the people of Ethiopia, however, do not speak the whole truth! They do not reveal the equally most shocking other deprivations, in particular, near-total gagging of the people, and the complete absence of an alternative media information for the citizens of Ethiopia.
The free press, which dozens of committed and courageous journalists and publishers pioneered, existed in Ethiopia for over a decade as an alternative media of the people, presenting alternative news, information, opinions and aspirations of the citizens.
The state-owned, controlled, managed and all-reaching media either deliberately ignored or distorted most of the information they are delivering. They were in the past as they are today, for that reason alone, ignored by the general public.
In contrast, the free press weeklies and monthlies are craved for by the public, obtained with a cost at least 300% higher than that of the overtly subsidized state-media, and are perused with great alacrity. The content of the free press are valued greatly by the audience. Their comments and editorials actually guide the public as attested to by the huge turn-out of the 15th may 2005 national elections, and also from the lists of the endless persecutions which the regime in power lavishly meted out against the free press journalists!
There has never been a day in the year since august 1993, when a number of free press journalists were not continued to prison cell! International media and human rights organizations condemned and re-condemned the government of Meles Zenawi for its arbitrary arrest and wanton persecutions of the free press journalists. Instead, it was the incessant reports and condemnations of the international media and human rights organizations that kept Meles Zenawi for more than a decade now among the list of top ten enemies of the press!
EFJA is a member of international federation of journalists, IFJ. Independently and through the later, we are also affiliated with several international media and human rights organizations, among which some manifested their appreciation of our professional works by giving us distinguished awards! Among the many others who closely follow our efforts to enable freedom of expression, and the right to publish free press, have root in Ethiopia, we are citing today by name and offer them our deepest gratitude to the following:
o International Federation of Journalists, IFJ, Brussels, Belgium
o International Press Institute, IPI, Vienna, Austria
o Amnesty International, AI, London, UK
o Reporters Sans Frontiers, RSF, Paris, France
o PEN International, PEN, London, UK
o Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, New York, USA
o International Federation of Freedom Exchange, IFEX, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
o Human Rights Watch, New York and Washington DC, USA
o UN Higher Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, NY, USA
o The German Federation of Journalists Union, Germany.
We, the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists have also been obtaining immensely valuable and most relevant, concrete supports from countries and organizations such as the European Union.
We are, therefore, highly appreciate the eloqant representation which the EU Parliament Election Observation Team under the leadership of Madam Ana Gomes presented on the state hipped sabotaged May 2005 National Elections of Ethiopia, and of the subsequent resolutions of the 22 July 2007 in which the EU parliament called on the commission and the member states to support the Development of Free Media Broadcasting in Ethiopia.
Democracy and Press Freedom shall prevail in Ethiopia!
(APA) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – One hundred of the 500 city service buses which Ethiopia has purchased from China at an estimated 20 million dollars, have begun arriving in the country, APA observed here on Wednesday.
The buses are intended to help tackle the transport shortage in Addis Ababa where around 5 million people live.
Ethiopian Ministry of Transport and Communication said the remaining buses are expected in the country by next week.
Transport sources say there are currently around 14,000 taxis in Addis Ababa and over 500 city buses.
————————– How much commission did Azeb Mesfin, Meles Zenawi’s wife, and Junedin Sado, the transportation minister, receive from the purchase of these inferior quality buses from China? ER Research Unit is investigating.
For the Woyanne tribal thugs, it seems every solution comes from the barrel of the gun. If they want to bring down the price of commodities, they go out and arrest vendors. The irony here is that most business activities in Ethiopia are controlled by Woyanne. Most major industries, from trucking to food distrubution are owned by officials and members of the Tigrean People Liberation Front (Woyanne), including Meles Zenawi’s wife Azeb Mesfin, who is becoming the richest Women in Africa using her status as the wife of a brutal dictator.
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Ethiopia Police Arrests Over 30 Over Price Hike
(APA) – Ethiopian police have arrested over 30 traders for allegedly making a 600 percent increase on the price of salt on the market. The wholesale traders were arrested at the weekend while attempting to stock the commodity so as to make it scarce on the market.
One kilogram of salt was on sale in Addis Ababa for 10 Birr (one USD) up from 1 Birr and 25 cents over night.
Ethiopian Federal Police accused the arrested people of trying to make salt scarce in the country, which has a huge salt resource.
Ethiopian Ministry of Trade and Industry said it will act in collaboration with the police against the “illegal” traders.
It is the first time that government has taken such a tough stance against traders who make high profits on basic food commodities.
There are two ways to be rich or super rich in Ethiopia: 1) Be a member of the Tigrean People Liberation Front (Woyanne); or 2) Be a Woyanne butt-kisser. There is no other way. The photos below show how one of these super rich individuals, the owner of Sunshine Construction, lives in Addis Ababa. It is to preserve and expand this ill-gotten wealth that Woyanne will fight tooth and nail to stay in power as long as it can no matter the cost to the people of Ethiopia. It is a good thing to be rich, but not through cruel exploitation and subjugation of other people.
The home of Sunshine Construction owner Samuel Tafesse, a business partner and personal friend of Azeb Mesfin, Meles Zenawi’s wife.
Addis Ababa
Woyanne billionaire Al Amoudi visits Samuel’s house
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel kicked off her first tour of sub-Saharan Africa with a plea for more democratic freedoms in Ethiopia and an enhanced European role on the continent.
Her first trip to the region since taking the helm of Europe’s largest economy two years ago is also due to take her to South Africa — where she is expected to pressure the government over Zimbabwe — and Liberia.
“We are in favour of further openness of the country, of the political system,” Merkel said at a joint press conference with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in Addis Ababa.
“We have the interest to see this society more open and the opposition’s rights protected,” she said, adding: “The respect of human rights is among the factors very conducive for development.”
Meles — a top western ally in the region who has come under scrutiny for his rights record and crackdowns against opposition groups — deflected criticism and promised Ethiopia would contribute troops to a new Darfur force.
“We have been asked to contribute to the UNAMID, we promised 5,000 troops, and we’ll do so, and I can tell you they’ll be fully equipped troops,” Meles said at the press conference.
UNAMID is a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force jointly run by the African Union and United Nations which is set to replace an embattled AU contingent in the troubled western Darfur region of Sudan.
Ethiopia also sent its troops to Somalia last year to support the interim government backed by the international community and oust an Islamist militia which briefly controlled the country and is suspected of ties with Al-Qaeda.
Human rights organisations have criticised Meles’ regime for its repression of political opponents who claimed they were robbed of victory in 2005 parliamentary polls.
Ethiopia is also under close watch over military sweeps currently under way in the rebellious Ogaden and Oromia regions.
On Tuesday, the US House of Representatives passed a measure aimed at freezing security assistance to Ethiopia if the Horn of Africa country does not improve its democratic record.
But Meles dismissed the Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act — still only a bill — as unjust.
“It is an unfair decision. It is the result of a vendetta… If it was about the human rights situation, they should have looked at Eritrea first,” he said, in reference to Ethiopia’s neighbour and arch-foe.
“We have excellent relations with the the USA, I hope they’ll stay like that. But it is a two way thing,” he added.
Addis Ababa hosts the headquarters of the African Union, where Merkel was to give a speech and hold talks with AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare before flying to South Africa for the longest leg of her tour.
Her aides said the chancellor plans to urge South African President Thabo Mbeki to take a tougher line on neighbouring Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe is already dominating the upcoming EU-Africa summit, with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown threatening to boycott it if President Robert Mugabe attempted to defy a travel ban and attend the meeting.
Merkel has signalled that despite her abhorrence of Mugabe’s policies which have plunged the once prosperous nation into a state of meltdown, she believes his presence should not derail the event.
China’s trade links and political influence have grown spectacularly in recent years and Merkel stressed in Addis Ababa that Europe should be more present on the continent.
The “EU has to do more for Africa, and the coming EU-AU meeting has an importance to find new development strategies to enhance our cooperation,” she said.
Merkel is wrap up her Africa tour in Liberia, where she is expected Sunday.
