The Voice of America (VOA) is expressing deep concern about the jamming of VOA broadcasts into Ethiopia and the blocking of VOA websites. In an open letter to Ethiopian listeners issued on World Press Freedom Day [3 May], VOA Director Danforth Austin said, “we are opposed to all efforts to interfere with the free flow of news and information.”
In addition to the jamming of shortwave broadcasts into Ethiopia, in recent weeks VOA websites have also been blocked. Mr Austins’s statement says VOA hopes to work with the Ethiopian Government to resolve the issues behind the jamming. At the same time he said “VOA has taken new steps to ensure the delivery of balanced and timely news reports to Ethiopia,” including an electronic newsletter and “new and very clear” satellite audio transmissions at VOA 24 on Arabsat, and new shortwave frequencies.
“We are addressing our audience in new ways that did not exist when we began our shortwave radio broadcasts to Ethiopia 29 years ago,” Mr Austin said.
The following is VOA Director’s letter to Ethiopian listners:
An Open Letter to Ethiopian Listeners on World Press Freedom Day
The Voice of America is deeply concerned about the actions taken in late February to jam the shortwave broadcasts of VOA news in Afaan Oromoo, Amharic, and Tigrigna and to block access to VOA web sites in these languages. We have stated publicly that we are opposed to all efforts to interfere with the free flow of news and information.
While we hope to work with the Ethiopian Government to resolve the issues behind the jamming, our broadcasters in Washington and in Ethiopia continue to work diligently to bring you balanced reports, timely news, and major events in Amharic, Afaan Oromoo, and Tigrigna. And, we will bring you full coverage of Ethiopia’s national elections.
We are addressing our audience in new ways that did not exist when we began our shortwave radio broadcasts to Ethiopia 29 years ago. We have begun sending e-mails to thousands of people who have written to us in recent months, inviting them to subscribe to our electronic newsletter. Ask someone you know who has access to our web site to enter your e-mail to receive news about Ethiopia Monday through Friday.
You can also now hear our daily radio programs on your TV set. I invite you to tune in to our new and very clear audio transmissions at VOA 24 on Arabsat in Ethiopia during our regular shortwave broadcast hours in all three languages. We have added a morning radio program show in Amharic at 6 a.m. and we have increased the number of shortwave frequencies on which you can receive our morning show. The evening shows are Afaan Oromoo at 8:30 p.m., Amharic at 9 p.m., and Tigrigna at 10 p.m.
Write to us at [email protected] or make a collect call to 202 205 4447. When you hear our VOA musical greeting, press 13 for Afaan Oromoo, 14 for Amharic, or 15 for Tigrigna.
The Voice of America values its audience in Ethiopia. On behalf of our Horn of Africa reporters in the region and all of our writers, editors and technicians in Washington, D.C., I assure you we will do all we can to bring you news you can trust, news you have relied on for almost 30 years.
Pastor Samuel Degu Kebede and other religious leaders are hosting a multi-denominational prayer service for peace in the Horn of Africa. The religious leaders are holding a meeting on Monday, May 3, starting at 2:00 PM, and invite all those concerned to attend.
Last night several Addis Ababa University (AAU) students were severely injured after supporters of Woyanne and Medrek clashed with each other following a televised debate. Federal Police entered the AAU’s 6 Kilocampus to stop the disturbance. More at Awramba.com
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission started a probe into a grenade attack on an opposition candidate’s home in a remote village in the north of the country, an investigator said.
The state-run body will release a report on the April 27 incident after about a week, investigator Mulugeta Netta said late yesterday by phone from the northern town of Axum.
No one was killed in the attack, said Ayale Beyene, a candidate for parliament for the Medrek opposition alliance, at his home in the nearby village of Wukro Oumaray.
Four members of the commission visited Ayale yesterday at his home in the country’s Tigray region, a hotbed of support for Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s ruling party.
The probe comes amid rising tension ahead of Ethiopia’s May 23 election. Medrek leaders claim they are the victims of a widespread campaign of intimidation and harassment by government officials, police, and militia loyal to Meles.
Ayale, 28, said he was awoken during the night by the sound of something clattering off his stone hut’s tin roof, followed by a “devastating noise.” Ayale pointed to pieces of chipped stone and a damaged tree as evidence of the blast. He said a second grenade was left unexploded outside his hut.
Shimeles Kemal, a spokesman for the Ethiopian government, said he was unaware of the incident when contacted on his mobile phone. Government and ruling party officials have in the past accused opposition leaders of fabricating human rights abuses so as to tarnish Ethiopia’s image.
At least 193 demonstrators were killed by security forces loyal to Meles in unrest following Ethiopia’s 2005 elections.
New York (CPJ) — In light of the Ethiopian regimet’s longstanding practice of jailing journalists on trumped-up criminal charges, the Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the detentions last week of two government TV journalists on allegations of misusing state property. CPJ is monitoring the legal proceedings closely.
Editor Haileyesus Worku and reporter Abdulsemed Mohammed of Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency (ERTA) have not been formally charged since their arrests, according to local journalists.Today, a magistrate extended their detentions at Makelawi Prison in the capital, Addis Ababa, for another week, pending further investigations by theEthiopian Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission, according to local journalists. The commission, which ordered their arrests, had requested an extension of 40 days.
Speaking to CPJ on Thursday, Ethiopian government spokesman Bereket Simon said the journalists had been “caught ‘red-handed’ smuggling property belonging to the institution, and tried to sell them to bodies of interest.” Simon declined to detail the accusations, saying the case was ongoing. “It is not a press freedom issue, but a criminal issue,” he said.
At least one of the two detainees, Abdulsemed Mohammed, has said he is innocent of the allegation, a local journalist told CPJ. Mohammed had been recently demoted under civil service policies designed to put government loyalists in senior editorial positions, sources told CPJ.
Ethiopian authorities have imprisoned a number of journalists in recent years under politically motivated criminal charges, according to CPJ research. Last month, a court sentenced Lelise Wodajo, an ERTA staffer imprisoned since October 2008 to ten years in prison without parole for alleged links with the rebel Oromo Liberation Front. Her husband, Dhabessa Wakjira, a former state TV news director, and reporter Shiferaw Insermu were arrested in May 2004 and imprisoned for nearly three years on similar charges.
In May 2009, Meleskachew Amaha, a correspondent with U.S. international broadcaster Voice of America spent three weeks in prison in connection with old tax charges that were later dismissed. Three months earlier, ERTA presenter Dawit Alemu was detained at Addis Ababa police commission for two weeks on false accusations of authoring a controversial religious book under a pseudonym, according to news reports and local journalists.
“Ethiopian authorities have a long history of imprisoning journalists on spurious criminal charges,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. “For this reason, we are skeptical of the charges against Haileyesus Worku and Abdulsemed Mohammed. We call for due process and transparency.”
Local journalists told CPJ police picked up Mohammed at his office and Worku at his home on April 22. Mohammed is a 10-year veteran of the station and was once a senior radio news editor. Worku produced several educational programs.
Alexandria, Virginia (ABC 7)– New York City police have arrested a Virginia resident who is accused of murdering his 3-year-old daughter and her mother, ABC 7 News has learned.
Investigators have been searching for 34-year-old Simon Asfeha, a native of Ethiopia, since April 11, when officers responded to a domestic disturbance complaint and found the woman, 27-year-old Seble Tessema, and her daughter, dead. Both had been stabbed to death.
Asfeha had previously been charged with assaulting Tessema.
The U.S. Marshals fugitive task force, which had been hunting Asfeha, described him as a “monster” to the Washington Examiner, saying he had slashed his own daughter’s throat.
