Ethiopia: Anti-Terrorism Law Chills Reporting on Security

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How can an Ethiopian reporter cover the activities of Ethiopia's leading opposition figure, Berhanu Nega, or an attack by the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels without risking prosecution and a 20-year prison sentence? Such questions have haunted Ethiopian journalists since a far-reaching anti-terrorism law came into effect in 2009. The law criminalizes any reporting authorities deem to "encourage" or "provide moral support" to groups and causes the government labels as "terrorists."

Recently, a day after a fly-by visit in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Ethiopian House of Peoples' Representatives (where the ruling EPRDF controls 99.6 percent of the seats) formally designated five groups as terrorist entities, pursuant to a power conferred on the chamber by the anti-terrorism law, according to local journalists. The list comprised Al-Qaeda and the hard-line Somali Islamist militant Al-Shabaab, the Ethiopian separatists groups ONLF and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), but also Ginbot 7, a banned political party started by U.S.-based opposition leader Nega.

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