Nairobi — Ethiopian authorities should halt their harassment of journalists covering the country's Muslim community and their intimidation of citizens who have tried to speak to reporters about sensitive religious, ethnic, and political issues, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Police in the capital, Addis Ababa, briefly detained Marthe Van Der Wolf, a reporter with the U.S. government-funded broadcaster Voice of America as she was covering a protest by members of Ethiopia's Muslim community at the Anwar Mosque, local journalists said. The protesters were demonstrating against alleged government interference in Islamic Council elections scheduled for Sunday, according to VOA and local journalists.
Wolf was taken to a police station and told to erase her recorded interviews, and then released without charge, local journalists said.
This week, security officers have also harassed Ethiopian citizens who were interviewed by VOA's Amharic-language service, according to the station. Police arrested two individuals who spoke to VOA on Thursday about a land dispute outside the capital, VOA reported. On Monday, police harassed individuals who spoke to the station about a dispute over resources between ethnic communities, the outlet said.
"We urge the government's leadership to set a new tone of tolerance and halt the bullying tactics of the past," said CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes. "Citizens should be allowed to voice their opinions to journalists without fearing arrest or intimidation, and reporters should be allowed to cover even those events the government dislikes."
For much of the year, Ethiopian authorities have cracked down on journalists and news outlets reporting on the unprecedented protests by members of the Muslim community, according to CPJ research. In May, police detained former VOA correspondent Peter Heinlein overnight on accusations of "illegal reporting" for covering a similar protest, VOA reported.
VOA released a statement today that condemned the harassment and obstruction and said the incident was "designed to prevent journalists from doing their job."
Three Muslim-oriented papers have not been published in the country since July after police raided the outlets and searched the homes of their editors. Yusuf Getachew, editor of Ye Muslimoch Guday, has been imprisoned on charges of treason and incitement to violence for reporting on the grievances of the Muslim community, and at least two journalists, Senior Editor Akemel Negash and copy editor Isaac Eshetu, have fled into hiding, according to CPJ research.
With six journalists in jail, Ethiopia is the second leading jailer of journalists in Africa, second only to its neighbor, Eritrea, according to CPJ research.
Comments Post a comment
@HAYELOM, if you really think as you're commenting, I have a really bad news for you: you ain't a journalist, nor have the integrity of a journalist. You ain't the "independent press" that you claim you are. You are simply a confused loyalist. So, why don't you stop preaching something you don't know or understand?!?! ... Let the people have a Press Freedom, and let the people decide what it believes and what it doesn't. If you believe in the intelligence of your people, you won't say, "they believe what they read... so, the best way is to restrict press freedom". That's total ignorance. If the gov't can't take criticism, they should leave their post and find a private business. There is a saying, "if you can't take the heat, you should get out of the kitchen". You have, "never seen an independent press in any part of the world"?!?! ... I can point you to one: watch Al Jazeera!!
I am for independent press.However I have never seen an independent press in any part of the world. Even in a country I live USA it is difficult to say the press is independent. If we are talking about independence from being scrutinized by the government, yes to a certain extent. However we have to know there is no absolute independence/freedom. Every journalist in any part of the world stands for or is supported by a certain group of the society.Therefore it is easier for me to present journalists as government and non government. The media run by the government reflects its policy and the media that considers itself"independent" tries to find any trash that it finds useful to its path to political power. For that reason a reporter from US when interviewing some one who says something that could incite, I believe the government has the right to intervene.An american journalist does not a report with the peoples welfare in his/her mind rather with the credit that comes with writing something sensitive. So I think it is about time to get rid of the "utopia" about independent journalists. We will never be independent from reflecting the idea we stand for, sometimes we work a government, sometimes for interest groups.