Ethiopia jails two editors – press-watchdog
August 27, 2009 (ADDIS ABABA) – The New York based media rights group, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Thursday said that the Ethiopian government has failed to keep its promises to stop the practice of arresting journalists on old charges under obsolete press law.
Ethiopia on Monday arrested two editors after court under an obsolete press law convicted them in connection with coverage of sensitive topics that date years back. CPJ said in a statement it sent to Sudan Tribune.
Ibrahim Mohamed Ali, editor of the weekly Salafiyya, and Asrat Wedajo, former editor of the now-defunct weekly Seife Nebelbal, were given one-year sentences on charges of publishing stories in 2004 and 2007-regarded as sensitive.
The subjects were convicted under the Ethiopia’s criminal code of press proclamation of 1992, which now is outdated. The 1992 media law was reformed as the Freedom of the Mass Media and Access to Information Proclamation, which officially took effect in December 2008, according to CPJ research.
The press watchdog said that despite Ethiopian Prime minister Meles Zenawi’s pledge, made to a visiting CPJ delegation in March 2006 to stop and reconsider applying such a practice, the government’s longstanding practice seems to persist.
“Prime Minister Meles Zenawi assured CPJ in 2006 that his government would end the practice of sending journalists to prison on charges dating back several years,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes . “But independent journalists continue to be charged and intimidated using obsolete media laws,” he added.
Asrat Wedajo was charged in connection with a 2004 story alleging human rights violations against the ethnic Oromos, the largest ethnic group in the country.
Ali was charged in connection with a piece written by a guest columnist and published in 2007, criticizing the Ministry of Education’s proposal to restrict headscarves for female Muslim students at public education institutions according to CPJ.
The group research indicates that, pending criminal charges or the possibility of criminal prosecutions now hang over to at least eight more editors of Amharic-language newspapers for their coverage of political and public affairs.
CPJ labels Ethiopia as one of the world’s worst backsliders of press freedom, a steady decline made worse by a recent draconian anti-terror legislation.
(ST)