16 March 2007
Addis Ababa — Ethiopia is one of 15 countries in the world considered as enemies of the Internet, Reporters Without Borders, said on Thursday.
Zimbabwe joined Ethiopia this to add to the list of countries that tightly restrict Internet use and monitor Web traffic for dissident activity.
The thirteen other "Internet Enemies" the group said are: Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
"The two new additions to the traditional censors are both to be found in sub-Saharan Africa: Zimbabwe and Ethiopia," the group said on its official website published on Thursday, According to the website, the group is organizing an online protest to denounce Internet censorship in the 15 countries around the world.
The Ethiopian network has been in existence for ten years, but the rate of penetration is said to be one of the worlds lowest.
A large number of blogs began appearing in 2005 during the May general elections before they were blocked by the government which justifies that by saying "technical problems do occur from time to time." Internet-users are rare given that 85% of the population lives in rural areas, where there is virtually no online access. Web-filtering does exist however as do threats against online journalists.
With an eye to possible membership of the World Trade Organization, the country hopes to open up to both private and local investors. It has already begun co-operation with China's Zhongxing Telecom Corporation (ZTE), authorized to develop the telecommunications market since September 2007.
The US Department of State assessment report on human rights around the world accuse Ethiopia of not respecting the rights of free press contrary to what is given in the constitution. , "While the constitution and law provide for freedom of speech and press, the government did not respect these rights in practice," said the report..
"The government continued to arrest, harass, and prosecute journalists, publishers, and editors. The government continued to control all broadcast media. Private and government journalists routinely practiced self censorship."
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I agree..its odd how people have just come complacent and sit down instead of fighting for what they believe is right..nobody cares about anything anymore, and its all about greed. Money, power, and crush all opposition. In America, this is done with mostly words, but in Ethiopia, its done with force, and America turns its eye as long as we get our military base and intel a nice spot to kick it. Things will get better next year, at least in America if things go the right way into progressive philosophies. Lets hope though that China does anything possible to keep Meles in power...or they got to go!!!!!
The end should say lets hope China does not get in the way when its time for Meles to get out. which , like Bush, was a long time ago. Maybe they can both move to a little island and play in the sand and pretend that they are both commanders in some war.
How does US President George Bush explain his allay, Ethiopia, is number one enemy of "democracy, freedom of expression, press, information and media", that George Bush is trying to deliver to Iraq and Afgahanistan, with 5 years of war? Where's the Western Media that constantly, condemns, crys and sheds crockodile tears against China, North Korea, etc,,, for luck of "freedom of the Press & Democracy", when their own little stooge in Africa could careless of the very freedoms that the Western Media crys about? It has already been said, "what's good for the gender is good for the goose", or is't the other way around. It's too bad, one can NOT fool all the people, all of the time.