Ethiopia Sees Surge In Arrests of Journalists, Rights Group Says

Journalists and media professionals in the country are being arbitrarily arrested since August 2005 when three journalists at a private station were detained on accusation of bias and inciting violence, Human Right Watch has said. The journalists were arrested despite complying with a mandate from the Ethiopian Media Authority, the country's media regulatory body, to remove the specific broadcast.

"The Ethiopian authorities' renewed efforts to muzzle independent reporting are all about preventing public scrutiny of the government," HRW's Deputy Africa Director, Laetitia Bader, said, calling for an end to the targeting of journalists and the immediate release of those "unjustly detained for their work."

There have been multiple other incidents of abductions and unlawful detentions: "The government's recent amendments to the media law, and potentially the civil society law, indicate a return to authoritarian practices that would chill freedom of speech and opinion," the rights group said in a statement.