Journalists face mass arrests and detentions

According to the latest Reporters Without Borders’ annual press freedom index, Ethiopia went from being 110th out of 180 countries in 2019 to 145th this year, as mass arrests and the detention of media workers across the country took their toll, reports The Guardian. After Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had come to power in 2018, exiled news outlets were invited back to the country, journalists were released from prison and a host of new publications sprang up. But with the outbreak of war in 2020 between Abiy’s military forces and local rulers in Tigray, Ethiopia’s northernmost region, the government restricted journalists’ access to Tigray and imposed a communication blackout, cutting off the region’s phone and internet connections. Ethiopia clamped down on independent media, claiming it was protecting national security and describing the rebels in Tigray as terrorists. Although the Tigray war is over, the restrictions on media have continued as conflict flares in other parts of the country, human rights groups say. The CPJ counts 12 journalists behind bars in Ethiopia, putting it among the worst countries in Africa for jailing journalists. Two journalists have been killed, including Dawit Kebede Araya, a reporter for the regional broadcaster Tigrai TV, who was gunned down in Tigray in January 2021. In 2022, the Dimitsi Woyane TV station in Tigrai was hit by a drone strike. Several independent media outlets have been shut down. Two foreign correspondents for The Economist and the New York Times have been deported. One Ethiopian journalist was arrested after fleeing to Djibouti and charged with terrorism offences for his coverage of conflict in Amhara, another region of Ethiopia beset by conflict.

Full report in The Guardian