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Detention of Journalists in Ethiopia Serves as Example of Deteriorating Media
Freedom

by Salem Solomon

   WASHINGTON --

   Following a four-month ordeal, an Ethiopian journalist is back home
   with his family, although he still may face years in prison if
   convicted of violating the country's wartime state of emergency law and
   anti-terrorism law.

   Amir Aman Kiyaro, a video journalist accredited by the Associated
   Press, was arrested on November 28, 2021, in Addis Ababa following a
   reporting trip outside of the capital. He was accused of illegally
   communicating with members of the Oromo Liberation Army, which the
   government has labeled a terrorist group. Under the nation's state of
   emergency, journalists have been punished for interviewing political
   figures, dissidents and members of armed groups. The state of emergency
   was lifted in February.

   Amir and another freelance video cameraman, Thomas Engida, were held as
   suspects but never charged with a crime, a representative of the AP
   said.

   Ian Phillips, vice president of international news at The Associated
   Press, said the case shows how journalism is being criminalized and
   reporters harassed in Ethiopia. He emphasized that Amir was on a
   legitimate reporting trip and committed no crime.

   "The crackdown on the media that this case represents, there is no true
   accusation that can be leveled against Amir," Phillips told VOA in a
   March 25 interview prior to Amir's release. "He is a respected,
   balanced journalist who has covered both sides of the conflict. He's
   been picked up and this is an arbitrary detention and we have been
   calling on Ethiopian authorities to do the right thing and release
   him."

   Zecharias Zelalem, a Canada-based Ethiopian journalist whose work has
   appeared in Al Jazeera, said arrests like this drove him to sign an
   open letter calling on the government to respect media rights. He said
   [1]46 journalists were detained in 2021 in the country making Ethiopia
   one of the worst jailers of journalists in Africa.

   "The general optimism that we had a couple of years ago with the
   much-heralded reform, with the promises that journalists would be able
   to operate unperturbed, this has not panned out," Zecharias said. "The
   promises and the pledges did not materialize. And unfortunately for
   journalists, the situation is starting to mirror what we saw in 2009
   when Ethiopia passed its infamous anti-terror proclamation, which was
   used to round up journalists en masse. So, we had to speak up about a
   very, very dire situation that our colleagues on the ground in Ethiopia
   are facing."

   When the Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018,
   there was widespread optimism about the direction the country was
   taking. Abiy was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the next year partly due
   to "granting amnesty to thousands of political prisoners" which
   included journalists and "discontinuing media censorship,"[2]the
   committee wrote when making the announcement.

   However, progress eroded and the country plunged into a civil war in
   November 2020. Journalists were intimidated, harassed and arrested.

   It became virtually impossible to get accurate information from within
   Ethiopia once conflict intensified and the government imposed an
   internet communication blackout in some parts of the country where
   there was conflict.

   Journalists have been prevented from reporting in areas where the Oromo
   Liberation Army, a rebel group that is fighting the central government,
   is active. Accurate information is hard to come by, experts say.

   Zecharias said the reporting Amir was doing, traveling to an area of
   Oromia currently controlled by a rebel group, is vital since there is
   virtually no coverage of what daily life is like there.

   "What he was carrying out was very important, crucial journalistic
   work," he said. "Very few journalists have been able to gain access to
   areas under the control of the OLA to see what life has been like for
   hundreds of thousands if not millions of people in these areas, much of
   which have been subjected to internet and phone outages, we don't have
   an accurate picture of."

   Amir's lawyer Tadele Gebremedhin said his client was released on a
   60,000 birr ($1,165) bail and ordered not to leave the country until
   his case is investigated. He said the journalists have been accused of
   working with foreign media outlets and "spoiling the country's
   development plans" through negative reporting.

   VOA reached out to the office of the prime minister and attorney
   general requesting comment but received no response.

   As free press advocates continue to push for the fair treatment of
   journalists, arrests continue in Ethiopia. On March 31, four
   journalists were arrested in the Somali region of the country,
   according to local reports.

   "We will continue to cover the story of journalists who are unjustly
   held. This is not acceptable behavior. These are arbitrary detentions,"
   Phillips said. "If there is proof of something, then that evidence has
   to be surfaced and has to go through a proper trial process, something
   that is extremely important to us at the AP and to our news
   organizations."

   Salem Solomon is an award-winning multimedia reporter and editor with
   the Voice of America's News Center.

   Salem's multimedia and data-driven projects include Hunger Across
   Africa
   , a project that won the Cowan Award for Humanitarian Reporting, Boko
   Haram: Terror Unmasked, Unrest: Ethiopia at a Crossroads, [3]How
   Western DRC's Ebola Outbreak Was Contained, [4]Zimbabwe in
   Transition and [5]How Long Have Africa's Presidents Held
   Office?, which [6]won second place at the 2016 African Media Awards.

   Previously, she worked in the Africa Division, covering the latest news
   from across the continent. She started working at VOA with the Horn of
   Africa service while completing her master's degree in journalism at
   the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, where she was a
   teaching assistant. She has reported and edited stories online, and for
   radio broadcasts and TV in English, [7]Amharic and [8]Tigrigna.

   Salem's work has appeared in prominent news outlets including The New
   York Times, The Washington Post, the Tampa Bay Times and others. She
   researches trends in analytics and digital journalism. Her work focused
   on journalism innovation and fact-checking initiatives has appeared in
   the Columbia Journalism Review, on Poynter Online and Harvard's Nieman
   Journalism Lab, and she has taught advanced reporting at the University
   of South Florida's Department of Journalism and Digital Communication.

   For tips and inquiries, email salemsolomon@voanews.com.

References

   1. https://africanarguments.org/2022/03/ethiopian-journalists-are-taking-a-stand-for-press-freedom-in-2022/
   2. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2019/press-release/
   3. https://projects.voanews.com/drc-ebola-outbreak/?utm_source=voaprojects
   4. https://projects.voanews.com/zimbabwe-in-transition/
   5. http://projects.voanews.com/african-presidents/
   6. https://www.usagm.gov/2016/10/26/voas-digital-project-wins-second-place-african-media-awards-competition/
   7. http://amharic.voanews.com/author/25085.html
   8. http://tigrigna.voanews.com/author/25525.html