Meles Zenawi has a lot to hide. There is much stealing and naked brutality that needs to be kept under wraps. There is torture, imprisonment, murder and the trafficking of women for profit. Western donors, who sustain the regime with a wink and a nod, can claim ignorance as long as the brutish nature of Ethiopia’s own Joseph Koni is kept out of public view. The ruling dictatorship believes in total control of information. Brute force and information control sustains rule by a heartless ethnic minority.
Media Control In Ethiopia
Democracy Denied
By Graham Peebles | Eurasia Review
Democracy sits firmly upon principles of freedom, justice, social inclusion and participation in civil society. Where these qualities of fairness are absent so too is democracy, for the word is not the thing, to speak of democratic values is easy enough, to dismantle repressive methods and State practices that deny there expression is quite another.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi Asres of Ethiopia knows little of democracy, human rights or the manifestation of democratic principles and much of repression and intimidation. The EPRDF government rules Ethiopia with a heavy hand of control, restricting completely free assemble – a universal right written into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), inhibiting the freedom of the media and denying the people of Ethiopia freedom of expression in manifold ways.
Media freedom is a basic pillar of any democratic society. Freedom of political expression, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press are essential elements of a democracy. Whilst media independence throughout the world is contentious at best, autonomy from direct State ownership and influence is a crucial element in establishing an independent media. The Ethiopian State owns and strictly controls the primary media of television and radio.
Not only is there no independent TV and radio in Ethiopia, but access to information is also tightly controlled, as Human Rights Watch (HRW) makes clear in its report, One Hundred Ways of Putting Pressure. Violations of Freedom of Expression and Association in Ethiopia, “the independent media has struggled to establish itself in the face of constant government hostility and an inability to access information from government officials.” Since the 2005 elections in Ethiopia the government has systematically introduced tighter and tighter methods of control, HRW continues, over the past five years the Ethiopian government has restricted political space for the opposition, stifled independent civil society, and intensified control of the media.
Owning information
Since the end of the civil war in 1991 privately owned newspapers and magazines have been appearing and despite heavy regulation by the Meles government, this area of Ethiopian media is expanding. This the government reluctantly tolerates, knowing that print media is of little significance, due to low literacy of the adult population (48%), a shameful figure that the EPRDF is no doubt delighted with, high levels of poverty and poor infrastructure making distribution difficult, newspapers are not widely circulated or read, consequently the main source of information for the majority of people is the state owned television and radio, which serve as little more than a mouthpiece of propaganda for the resident regime, the EPRDF.
Internet media is also restricted, with access to the web the lowest in Africa; Research & Markets found “Ethiopia has the lowest overall teledensity in Africa. The population is approaching 90 million, but there are less than 1 million fixed lines in service, and a little more than 3.3 million mobile subscribers. The number of internet users is dismal – below 500,000 at the end of 2009.” 1 The World Bank puts the figure a little higher at 7.5% of the population. In another demonstration of democratic duplicity, the government of Ethiopia controls all telecommunications. Internet and telephone systems must run through the State owned Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation.
The vast majority of the population – 82.40% in 2010, according to a World Bank report released in 20112, live in rural areas and have no access to the ‘worldwide web’ at all. By maintaining monopoly control of telecommunications the Ethiopian Government is denying the majority of the population access to another key area of mass information. This is an additional infringement of basic democratic principles of diversity and social participation, as Noam Chomsky makes clear “The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.”3
Party dictatorships fits the Ethiopian government tailor-made, although their arrogance and vanity would no doubt prefer the title of ‘kings and princes’, Emperor Meles perhaps, following in the brutal glow of that other conceited controller Halie Sellassie. The EPRDF regime is in fact a dictatorship and known as such to the majority of Ethiopians living inside and indeed outside the country, who are courageous enough to speak out and make their views known. Courageous indeed, for as with all cowardly brutal states, the EPRDF rules by violence, intimidation and fear, HRW again Ethiopia’s citizens are unable to speak freely, organize political activities, and challenge their government’s policies through peaceful protest, voting, or publishing their views without fear of reprisal. Such is democratic living under the Meles machine.
Law Breakers
Freedom of thought, freedom of expression and of information is a basic requirement under the UDHR. Article 19 makes this clear “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Although the UDHR is not in itself a legally binding document, it provides moral guidance for states and offers a clear indication of what we as a world community have agreed as the basic requirements of correct governance and civilized living. In the preamble is stated “it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law.” Tyranny and oppression is the cloud under which the good people of Ethiopia are living and have lived for the twenty-year rule of Prime Minister Meles and co. It is through the implementation and enforcement of international law, established to safeguard the people’s basic human rights that the suffering and injustices may and will be brought to an end. The sister document to the UDHR the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) provides such legal protection and is indeed legally binding. There we find, Article 19, paragraph 1 ” Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.” And paragraph 2 “ Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.”
Ethiopia ratified this international treatise on 11th June 1993, and is therefore legally bound by its articles. By imposing tight regulatory controls on media inside and indeed outside of Ethiopia, the case of ESAT TV based in Holland, whose satellite signal is repeatedly [illegally} blocked by the EPRDF, is an important case in question. Not only is the Ethiopian government in violation of international law, but by completely restricting the freedom of the media and inhibiting completely any hint of dissent, the regime is also in contradiction of its own constitution. Article 29, entitled rather optimistically ‘Right of Thought, Opinion and Expression’ states, 1. Everyone has the right to hold opinions without interference. 2. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression without any interference. This right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any media of his choice. 3. Freedom of the press and other mass media and freedom of artistic creativity is guaranteed. Freedom of the press shall specifically include the following elements: (a) Prohibition of any form of censorship. (b) Access to information of public interest.4 Clear and noble words, indeed democratic in content and tone, however words that sit filed neatly upon the shelf of neglect and indifference, as the people suffer and cry out to their mother country, serve only as a mask of convenience and deceit allowing the betrayal of the many to continue. Human Rights Watch gently states, the 1995 constitution incorporates a wide range of human rights standards, and government officials frequently voice the state’s commitment to meeting its human rights obligations. But these steps while important, have not ensured that Ethiopia’s citizens are able to enjoy their fundamental rights.
State suppression
In 2009 the EPRDF passed two inhibiting pieces of legislation that embody some of the worst aspects of the governments decent towards greater repression and political intolerance. The controversial CSO law, is according to HRW, one of the most restrictive of its kind, and its provisions will make most independent human rights work impossible. A ‘counterterrorism’ law was introduced at the same time; this second piece of repressive legislation allows the government and security forces to prosecute political protesters and non-violent expressions of dissent as terrorism. Since the introduction of these internationally criticised laws, the UN Jubilee Campaign in its report ‘Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review Ethiopia’ recommends the adoption of this law [emphasis mine] be repealed,” the umbrella term ‘terrorist’, meaning anyone who disagrees with the party/state line continues to be used and manipulated as justification for all manner of human rights violations and methods of suppression and control – the aim of all dictatorships. What defines a terrorist or an act of terrorism remains vague and ambiguous, enabling the Meles regime to construct definitions that suit them at any given time. Amongst other travesties of justice the legislation, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reveals, “permits a clamp down on political dissent, including political demonstrations and public criticisms of government policy, it also deprives defendants of the right to be presumed innocent.“5 A primary function of the media in a democratic society is to examine and criticise the government and provide a public platform for debate and participation. This law denies such interaction and freedom of expression. The law is in violation of the ICCPR and blatantly contravenes the much-championed Ethiopian constitution; idealised images of goodness, remaining un-manifest, stillborn.
The anti-terror law is a pseudonym for a law of repression and control, made and enforced by a paranoid regime, that is determined to use all means in its armoury to quash any dissent and maintain a system of disinformation and duplicity. Media organisations that disagree with the EPRDF party line run the risk of being branded, under this law ‘terrorists’, arrested and imprisoned as such. Dawit Kebede, editor-in-chief of Awramba Times, says “the law provides a pretext for the government to intimidate and even arrest journalists who fall afoul of its wording. Kebede said the regulations were a government campaign to oppress all forms of dissident activity.” (Ibid) This new unjust law completely inhibits ability of the media to report anything that is deemed critical of the current government. All opposing voices to policy are stifled; journalists are frightened and the facility to expose and criticize the many serious violations of human rights, to provide a balanced view of the issues facing the country are denied. The rights to freedom of expression and association are completely restricted, all independent voices have been virtually silenced and freedom of speech and opinion are denied. Human Rights Watch makes clear its concern, over the past five years the Ethiopian government has restricted political space for the opposition, stifled independent civil society, and intensified control of the media.6
Control flows from fear, the greater the dishonesty, corruption and greed the more extreme the controls become. Under the neglectful corrupt governance of the EPRDF, Ethiopians are subjected to a range of human rights abuses and violations political opposition has been unofficially banned, making this democracy sitting in the Horn of Africa a single party dictatorship. The UN in its human rights report finds, “resistance to opposition has become the primary source of concern regarding the future of human rights in Ethiopia” and confirms the view of HRW, stating “The CSO law directly inhibits rights to association, assembly and free expression.” The Meles regime seek, as all isolated corrupt dictatorships do, to centralize power, deny dissent and freedom of expression and suppress the people by intimidation, violence and fear. Creating an atmosphere of apprehension, extinguishing all hope of justice, true human development and freedom from tyranny. Disempowerment is the aim, the means are well known, crude and unimaginative, keep the people uneducated, deny them access to information, restrict their freedom of association and expression and keep them entrapped.
Demanding justice
The downtrodden suppressed people of Ethiopia, living under the brutality of the Meles regime, whose human rights are being ignored, without an effective media, have no voice. The controls that deny media freedom and the people the freedom of association and expression, guaranteed under the Ethiopian constitution and international law, must be repealed, HRW in its detailed report makes a series of basic demands of the Ethiopian government, which reinforce this, key among them is the call to “Guarantee unrestricted access to Ethiopia to international media and independent human rights investigators, and cease harassment of Ethiopian media.”
The days of the dictator are over no amount of repressive legislation can any longer safeguard a regime that rules through violence and inhibition. Meles and his cronies ensconced behind armed walls of duplicity may well seek control, the fearful always do. The will of the people is for freedom, peace and the observation of their human rights, it must and shall be done for justice and the rule of law underlies their call.
4. Constitution of The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. www.africanlegislaturesproject.org/…/Constitution%20Ethiopia.pdf
5. The bureau of investigative journalism
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/09/29/ethiopian-media-gagged-by-anti-terror-laws
6. Human Rights watch (HRW) http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2010/03/24/one-hundred-ways-putting-pressure-0
Graham is Director of The Create Trust, a UK registered charity, supporting fundamental social change and the human rights of individuals in acute need. He may be reached at [email protected]
Editor’s Note: The average Ethiopian has to work two weeks to afford one chicken. Meles Zenawi’s economic nirvana is creating a living hell for Ethiopia’s 99 percent, while creating unprecedented wealth for a tiny ethnic minority.
One chicken costs US $11.50 while the average civil servant earns $25 a month. The astronomical cost of living has to do with bad policy, the printing of worthless money by the government and the decision to export food while local people starve.
Doro What?
By Solomon Bekele | Capital Ethiopia
Last Easter chicken was sold around 90 birr. Now it has skyrocketed to a ghastly 200 birr, shocking customers like this one who returned the chicken she tried to buy after hearing the price. For many this is not a holiday without chicken but for the last couple of years consumers have been playing a game of chicken at the market as they struggle to afford what is a holiday staple.
Easter Holiday market, no trade bonanza
In the laissez-faire school of thought, markets-know-best, prices are free to rise and to fall as supply and demand require. But considering the last three or four holidays, ‘the free fall’ action has never been witnessed. Rather, what we have observed is a one directional upward market movement. In the year 2010 Easter Holiday, the average price for a chicken was between 50 and 70 birr in markets across the city. In 2011 for the same Easter Holiday, the cost for chicken went up to 90 birr. This year in the week leading up to the Holiday, the price of chicken has skyrocketed up to an unbelievable 180 birr.
To the surprise of many, a week from the Holiday a chicken was sold up to 200 birr at Debre Zeit market. “The first time I heard about this exorbitant price, I screamed. I checked and it was true. I decided not to buy the bird for the Holiday, though, traditionally having Dorowot -sauce made of chicken- is a must for Easter,” a woman residing at Debre Zeit who preferred anonymity told Capital. In relation to the chicken, in 2010 the price of an egg was 1.15 birr. Last year it was 1.50 birr. And this time it is 2.20 birr per egg.
Capital’s Easter market animal and animal products assessment suggests that the increase of prices is here again remarkably high as compared to the previous years. Of course, the reason for the sharp price rise is well understood. The Easter holiday is special for the Orthodox Christian community in Ethiopia as it comes after a two-month long fasting period. That makes it different from all other religious holidays. The Christian community hence flocks to the markets to buy sheep, oxen and other animal products such as cheese and butter.
Ox’s price tag has shown a great leap forward. In the year 2010 the price stood between 4,200 and 6,000 birr. Last year it was available between 5,000 birr to 7,000 birr. This year the price shot up from 7,000 to 10,000 birr. As usual very many people put their money together to share an ox. In Amharic this is called Kircha. The price of an ox used for special raw meat has now gone up over 15,000 birr. A kilo of meat for the raw meat in butchery shop now has gone up from 120 to 140 birr.
Butter has shown considerable increase with the price tag ranging from 160-180 birr per kilo. Last year its price was from 100-150 per kilo. What is said to be the best butter, Sheno butter, has risen to 200 birr per kilo. Last year Sheno butter was sold at 150 birr. In 2010 the same quality butter was available for 100 birr only.
The price of sheep ranged from 1,250 birr to 2,500. Last year the price tag was between 750 and 1,800 birr. The year 2010 passed showing the price tag between 700 birr and 1,200 price range for sheep. Currently, the best quality, which is called Mukit in Amharic, costs over 3,000. Last year it was only 2,000 birr.
Capital learnt that onions are sold between 8.50 and 9.50 per kg at the newly set vegetable market at Saris. Last year it was 4.50 to 6.00 birr per kg. In a very unusual market character, onion prices had shown little increase in the two-month Easter fasting season where a lot of vegetables are consumed.
Opposite to this, one finds cheese. Although cheese is not consumed in significant amounts during the two-month fasting season, it showed a sign of price increase. Now cheese is sold 50 birr per kg at groceries up from 40 birr. In small markets the price is well over 35 birr per kg. But their quality is lower than what is sold at big groceries.
The price of Teff went up to 1,250 birr from 1,000 birr per quintal (100kg). This increase occurred regardless of quality. White Teff, or Magna rose to 1,450 birr while middle quality Teff, Sergegna, was up to 1,350 birr.
Though not directly related to the holiday, coffee has shown a modest price increase with the tag of 115 birr per kg. It is not only coffee that showed minor price rise this time. Locally produced edible oil went up from 45 birr per litre two months ago to between 55 and 65 birr. At Shola market, oil price per litre was 55 birr while the product of the Abuare Edible Oil Mill was 65 birr per litre. The reason for the price rise was directly related to the Orthodox Christians’ fasting season, where it is not permissible to eat butter, meat and other animal products and the unavailability of the imported oil in the market for the last couple of months.
The unavailability of imported oil from the local market is not an exception. Other commodities like sugar and oranges were also scarce. The sugar price went up to 25 birr per kg while oranges are sold 19 birr per kg.
As usual Bazaars are organized in almost all sub cities in Addis Ababa in connection to the holiday. They are accessible for shoppers, because they are at the side of the main city roads. What is noticeable at this time is the expansion of the areas of the bazaar. For instance, the number of pavilions set at Kazanchis and Arat Kilo has almost doubled compared to the last Christmas holiday. All pavilions are packed with different kinds of materials for sale. People do not usually buy home furniture for the Easter holiday. The usual stuff people prefer to buy for Easter are kitchen utensils and food items, in particular animal and animal products. In the pavilions one gets things ranging from cheese and honey up to electronics materials. Another noticeable factor Capital observed is the flow of people at the bazaar expecting a price reduction, as the prices in these bazaars are traditionally lower than one finds in the shops. For example shoes are available from 155 to 190 birr. The same kinds of shoes in shops would cost from 175 to 225 birr respectively.
Besides this bazaar, what is a custom in the holiday season is a big sale in Addis. Big Christmas and New Year sales have been a tradition in the west. Both the public and the traders get ready to participate in that trade bonanza. The traders want to clear what they have in store and the public want to buy what they want at cheaper prices. What is interesting to note is that during the big sale, prices are genuinely reduced.
In Ethiopia this time it seems the businesses are attempting to duplicate this world experience. We now see businesses in areas such as Piazza, Merkato and Kazanchis advertising by poster or showing signs of their ‘big sale’ with up to 50 percent price reduction. In some cases the reduction is not genuine. Capital learnt that some shops ‘make a certain percentage reduction from the fake price tag.’ As it stands, assume that the price of a shirt was 200 birr before the big sale. The price of that material is now slashed by 35 percent sale price. But the price tag shows the original price as 270 birr, and then after the sale it becomes close to the original 200 birr. But different boutiques and shoe shops do make genuine price reductions, as we witnessed actual price reduction at Kazanchis shoe shop and Piazza boutiques. However, few people go and take advantage of the sale.
The big sale practice didn’t knock at the door of groceries just yet. In Europe and elsewhere in the world the big sale include all markets. There is even a holiday travel fare. In our case the vegetable and groceries and supermarkets are unfamiliar to this kind of practice.
Even though prices are rising, people’s purchasing power generally is not. As a result, people may not be able to afford extra shopping for Easter. As it stands, they do not have much discretionary income though prices of animals and their products, directly related to the Easter holiday have once again gone up.
AS Africa’s economies grow, an insidious attack on press freedom is under way. Independent African journalists covering the continent’s development are now frequently persecuted for critical reporting on the misuse of public finances, corruption and the activities of foreign investors.
Why this disturbing trend? In the West, cynicism about African democracy has led governments to narrow their development priorities to poverty reduction and stability; individual liberties like press freedom have dropped off the agenda, making it easier for authoritarian rulers to go after journalists more aggressively. In the 1990s, leaders like Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia were praised by the West as political and social reformers. Today, the West extols these men for achieving growth and maintaining stability, which they do largely with a nearly absolute grip over all national institutions and the press.
Then there’s the influence of China, which surpassed the West as Africa’s largest trading partner in 2009. Ever since, China has been deepening technical and media ties with African governments to counter the kind of critical press coverage that both parties demonize as neocolonialist.
In January, Beijing issued a white paper calling for accelerated expansion of China’s news media abroad and the deployment of a press corps of 100,000 around the world, particularly in priority regions like Africa. In the last few months alone, China established its first TV news hub in Kenya and a print publication in South Africa. The state-run Xinhua news agency already operates more than 20 bureaus in Africa. More than 200 African government press officers received Chinese training between 2004 and 2011 in order to produce what the Communist Party propaganda chief, Li Changchun, called “truthful” coverage of development fueled by China’s activities.
China and African governments tend to agree that the press should focus on collective achievements and mobilize public support for the state, rather than report on divisive issues or so-called negative news.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in Ethiopia, which remains one of the West’s foremost recipients of development assistance and whose largest trading partner and main source of foreign investment is China. The prisons in Ethiopia, like those in China, are now filled with journalists and dissidents, and critical Web sites are blocked.
This is particularly troubling in Ethiopia, a country where investigative journalism once saved countless lives. In the 1980s, the tyrannical president Mengistu Haile Mariam denied that a famine was happening in Ethiopia, even as it deepened. The world did not move to assist millions of starving Ethiopians until international journalists broke the dictator’s stranglehold on information.
Nearly three decades later, Ethiopia is still mired in a cycle of humanitarian crises and conflicts. But today, journalists are denied independent access to sensitive areas and risk up to 20 years in prison if they report about opposition groups designated by the government as terrorists. “We are not supposed to take pictures of obviously malnourished kids,” an Ethiopia-based reporter recently told me. “We are effectively prevented from going to areas and health facilities where severely malnourished kids are, or are being treated.”
This silencing in turn frustrates the ability of aid groups to quickly mobilize funds when help is needed. And with civil society, the political opposition and the press severely restricted, there is hardly any domestic scrutiny over how the government uses billions of dollars of international assistance from Western governments.
Rwanda is another worrisome case. The volume of trade between Rwanda and China increased fivefold between 2005 and 2009. During the same period, the government has eviscerated virtually all critical press and opposition and has begun filtering Rwandan dissident news Web sites based abroad.
As powerful political and economic interests tied to China’s investments seek to stamp out independent reporting, a free African press is needed more than ever, as a key institution of development, a consumer watchdog and a way for the public to contextualize official statistics about joblessness, inflation and other social and economic concerns. But support for the press, in order to be effective, will have to mean more than just supporting journalism training and publishing capacity; if such efforts are to succeed, they must be integrated into a wider strategy of political and media reforms.
Mohamed Keita is the Africa advocacy coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Top PEN Prize to Honor Eskinder Nega, Jailed Ethiopian Journalist and Blogger
Leading Free Expression Advocate on Trial for Terrorism
New York City, April 12, 2012—PEN American Center today named Eskinder Nega, a journalist and dissident blogger in Ethiopia, as the recipient of its 2012 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. Nega, a leading advocate for press freedom and freedom of expression in Ethiopia, was arrested on September 14, 2011, and is currently being tried under the country’s sweeping anti-terror legislation, which criminalizes any reporting deemed to “encourage” or “provide moral support” to groups and causes which the government considers to be “terrorist.” He could face the death penalty if convicted.
The award, which honors international writers who have been persecuted or imprisoned for exercising or defending the right to freedom of expression, will be presented at PEN’s Annual Gala on May 1, 2012, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
“The Ethiopian writer Eskinder Nega is that bravest and most admirable of writers, one who picked up his pen to write things that he knew would surely put him at grave risk,” said Peter Godwin, president of PEN American Center. “Yet he did so nonetheless. And indeed he fell victim to exactly the measures he was highlighting, Ethiopia’s draconian ‘’anti terrorism’ laws that criminalize critical commentary. This is at least the seventh time that the government of Meles Zenawi has detained Eskinder Nega in an effort to muzzle him. Yet Nega has continued his spirited pursuit of freedom of expression. Such humbling courage makes Nega a hugely deserving recipient of the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award.”
Eskinder Nega has been publishing articles critical of the government since 1993, when he opened his first newspaper, Ethiopis, which was soon shut down by authorities. He was the general manager of Serkalem Publishing House, which published the newspapers Asqual, Satenaw, and Menelik, all of which are now banned in Ethiopia. He has also been a columnist for the monthly magazine Change and for the U.S.-based news forum EthioMedia, which are also banned. He has been detained at least seven times under Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, including in 2005, when he and his journalist wife Serkalem Fasil were imprisoned for 17 months on treason charges for their critical reporting on the government’s violent crackdown of protests following disputed elections, and briefly in February 2011 for “attempts to incite Egyptian and Tunisian-like protests in Ethiopia” after he published articles on the Arab Spring. Their newspapers have been shut down and Nega has been denied a license to practice journalism since 2005, yet he has continued to publish columns critical of the government’s human rights record and calling for an end to political repression and corruption.
Nega was again arrested on September 14, 2011, after he published a column questioning the government’s claim that a number of journalists it had detained were suspected terrorists, and for criticizing the arrest of well-known Ethiopian actor and government critic Debebe Eshetu on terror charges earlier that week. Shortly after his arrest, Nega was charged with affiliation with the banned political party Ginbot 7, which the Ethiopian government considers a terrorist organization. On November 10, Nega was charged and further accused of plotting with and receiving weapons and explosives from neighboring Eritrea to carry out terrorist attacks in Ethiopia. State television portrayed Nega and other political prisoners as “spies for foreign forces.” He is currently being held in Maekelawi Prison in Addis Ababa, where detainees are reportedly often ill-treated and tortured.
PEN, Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and many other international organizations have long been concerned about Ethiopia’s use of anti-terrorism legislation to justify the jailing of journalists and members of the political opposition. Eskinder Nega’s trial on charges under the 2009 Anti-Terrorism Proclamation, which covers the “planning preparation, conspiracy, incitement, and attempt” of terrorist acts, illustrates this trend. During his trial, which opened on March 6, 2012, the prosecution has presented evidence that consisted of nearly inaudible recordings of telephone conversations and other comments and a video of a town hall meeting in which Nega discusses the differences between Arab countries and Ethiopia. Nega took the stand on March 28 and denied all charges against him, saying he has never conspired to overthrow the government through violence and admitting only to reporting on the Arab Spring and speculating on whether a similar movement could take place in Ethiopia. Serkalem Fasil, who was the recipient of the 2007 Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation, maintained that her husband is “a journalist, not a member of a political party.”
In announcing the award today in New York, Freedom to Write Program Director Larry Siems praised Eskinder Nega’s “courageous use of the written word to advocate on behalf of his fellow journalists and citizens.”
“Nega’s critiques of the Zenawi government go back two decades, and in recent years he has written fearlessly about the need for peaceful democratic transition and about the fate of other journalists unjustly silenced under the pretense of fighting terrorism,” Siems said. “Now as he faces the same fate, in no small part because he spoke out on their behalf, he continues to press for freedom of expression from behind bars. He is truly an extraordinary individual and we are proud to be able to award him this honor.”
Siems joined Godwin in urging the Obama administration to press Ethiopian authorities to halt the use of anti-terror legislation to target journalists for their legitimate work and release Eskinder Nega, one of the most visible symbols of the Ethiopian government’s persistent press freedom violations, and all other journalists jailed under national security laws in violation of their right to freedom of expression.
Writer, historian and PEN Member Barbara Goldsmith underwrites the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. This is the 26th year the award has honored an international literary figure who has been persecuted or imprisoned for exercising or defending the right to freedom of expression. Candidates are nominated by PEN International and any of its 145 constituent PEN centers around the world, and screened by PEN American Center and an Advisory Board comprising some of the most distinguished experts in the field. The Advisory Board for the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award includes Carroll Bogert, Deputy Executive Director for External Relations at Human Rights Watch; Vartan Gregorian, President of the Carnegie Corporation; Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, International Vice President of PEN International and PEN American Center Trustee; Aryeh Neier, former president of the Open Society Foundation; and Joel Simon, Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The Freedom to Write Award is an extension of PEN’s year-round advocacy on behalf of the more than 900 writers and journalists who are currently threatened or in prison. Forty-six women and men have received the award since 1987; 33 of the 37 honorees who were in prison at the time they were honored were subsequently released.
PEN American Center is the largest of the 145 centers of PEN International, the world’s oldest human rights organization and the oldest international literary organization. The Freedom to Write Program of PEN American Center works to protect the freedom of the written word wherever it is imperiled. It defends writers and journalists from all over the world who are imprisoned, threatened, persecuted, or attacked in the course of carrying out their profession. For more information on PEN’s work, please visit www.pen.org
UN urges Lebanon to investigate Ethiopian maid’s death
By the BBC
The UN special rapporteur on slavery has urged the Lebanese government to carry out a full investigation into the death of an Ethiopian domestic worker.
Alem Dechasa, 33, killed herself on 14 March, a few days after she was filmed being beaten by men and dragged into a car in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
Gulnara Shahinian said the “cruel” images reminded her of the many migrant workers she met in Lebanon last year.
She urged the country to uncover the truth about such rights violations.
Last month, eight civil society groups called on the Lebanese authorities to reform restrictive visa regulations and adopt a labour law on domestic work to address high levels of abuse and deaths among migrant workers.
As she tries to resist, he and another man drag her into a car.
LBCI later identified the man beating her as the brother of the head of the recruiting agency that brought her to Lebanon.
He alleged that his brother’s agency had been trying to return her to Ethiopia because she had mental health problems.
Police later found Ms Alem and took her to a detention centre.
Following a request by the Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center, they transferred her to the Deir al-Saleeb psychiatric hospital two days later, but did not arrest those alleged to have carried out the beatings.
Ms Alem killed herself at the hospital on the morning of 14 March.
After the beating video was circulated, the labour and justice ministries began investigations, but their outcomes have not been made public.
On Tuesday, Ms Shahinian issued a statement strongly urging the Lebanese authorities to investigate the circumstances leading to Ms Alem’s death and make public their findings.
“There are a number of reports circulating about the human rights violations Alem Dechasa experienced as a migrant domestic worker in Lebanon and the facts surrounding her death,” she said.
“States are under an obligation to ensure the realisation of the right to truth about violations in order to end impunity and promote and protect human rights and provide redress to victims and their families.”
Last week in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, while Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was making a speech about Africa’s growth potential at an African Union forum, a journalist who his administration has locked away since September on {www:bogus} terrorism charges was presenting his defense before a judge. Eskinder Nega has been one of the most outspoken critics of Meles’ domestic leadership over the past two decades and has suffered imprisonment, intimidation, and censorship for it… [read more]
