Article 19 (London)
11 December 2008
As the world celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, many Eritrean journalists and political opponents are still detained without charges for more than seven (7) years. Eritrea has the highest number of jailed and exiled journalists in Africa.
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It's good that "Article 19" is advocating for "human rights". But I see factual errors and exaggarations here and there. For example, I doubt tiny Eritrea has "the highest number of jailed and exiled journalists in Africa." Several African countries such as Ethiopia and Zimbabwe have more journalists in jail or exiled alone that surpass Eritrea's combined feagures of exiled and jailed.
Let's also keep in mind that the private press was operating well between 1993-1998 until the war with Ethiopia erupted before even half of Eritrea's senior command was jailed. So unless the root causes are tackled you'll simply keep barking at the wrong tree.