Africa's second-biggest prison for journalists

In Ethiopia, two-thirds of private newspapers were closed in the last year and 14 journalists are currently on trial, potentially facing the death penalty for ‘outrages against the constitution'. Max McGuinness reports.

 

The brief Italian occupation of Ethiopia during the 1930s left the country with a legacy of ‘café culture'. While the only brew on offer in other African coffee-exporting nations tends to be imported Nescafé, the cafés of Addis Ababa are thronged with men drinking excellent espresso. But something is missing from this cosmopolitan scene: newspapers.

Ethiopia is Africa's second-biggest prison for journalists; it was the largest until its bitter enemy, neighbouring Eritrea, took top spot last month. Eighteen journalists are currently in jail, 14 of them on trial for “outrages against the constitution” and/images/village/people/emp-2906972.jpg “attempted genocide”; the latter charge was originally “genocide”. Others are being tried in absentia. They are joined in the dock by dozens of opposition leaders and supporters who were arrested in the aftermath of last year's parliamentary election. The final results of the vote – which “fell short of international standards for genuine democratic elections” according to the final report of EU observers – gave Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's coalition a large majority. Meles had been seen as part of an ‘African Renaissance' and was a member of Tony Blair's Commission for Africa.

Approximately two-thirds of private newspapers have been closed since last year, including the most widely-read titles published in the national language, Amharic. No independent radio stations are on air. A clutch of private English-language papers continue to operate in the capital Addis Ababa. In a country of approximately 75 million people, none of them sell more than 6,000 copies.

Tamrat Giorgis, editor and owner of Fortune, a weekly English-language business paper, told Village that he does not consider the Ethiopian press to be wholly free or unfree. Press offences currently carry a penalty of up to three years in jail. The government exercises a near monopoly over printing presses; it can shut down a publication indirectly by refusing to print it. However, Giorgis denied that he engaged in self-censorship. He said that he had never spiked a story for fear of official censure and that there were no limits to the questions he could ask a government minister.

The experience of another editor was at odds with this. He claimed that his journalists “make an effort not to get arrested” and that higher officials insist on questions being forwarded in advance, adding that it can take weeks to get five questions answered.

In January 2006, Associated Press's Addis Ababa correspondent, Anthony Mitchell, was given 24 hours to leave Ethiopia. The state-run Ethiopian News Agency reported that the government had decided to expel Mitchell for “tarnishing the image of the nation repeatedly”. Members of the foreign press in Addis Ababa said that they make an effort not to suffer the same fate. One television journalist said that she deliberately concentrated on uncontroversial features rather than news stories to avoid expulsion.

To illustrate his freedom to criticise, Giorgis cited an interview with former information minister Bereket Simon where Giorgis had put it to Simon that “dissent does not seem to have any room [in Ethiopia].” But Fortune's access to figures of power is unusual. One newspaper editor told Village that his paper had never been granted an interview with a government minister and that the authorities seemed to view the press as “the enemy”.

Exiled president of the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists, Ato Kifle Mulat, who is among those being tried in absentia, accused journalists still working in Ethiopia of “working in favour of the government”. He said a free press does not operate in Ethiopia and labelled those private papers still publishing as “fakes”. He said they are allowed to exist “to show the international community that there are independent newspapers”.  

In 2005, government manipulation of the media was revealed when a government news agency fabricated quotes attributed to EU ambassador Tim Clarke. Clarke was reported as saying that the national electoral board had done a “remarkable job” in managing the post-election crisis, and that he had found the board's investigation to be “a fascinating and unique process”. This provoked an open letter from Ambassador Clarke to the Ethiopian information minister indicating that he had been personally misquoted. Clarke has been a vocal critic of the government's conduct in the areas of democracy and human rights.
An Ethiopian development worker told Village that such media manipulation can be effective because the bulk of the population is uneducated and lacks the sophistication to detect the ruse.

Though Fortune editor Tamrat Giorgis regularly visits two of the imprisoned journalists, he has never written about it, claiming it is not relevant to Fortune, which presents itself as a business paper. Another weekly paper, The Reporter, printed an op-ed in its 2 September issue on the subject of press freedom which quoted eloquently from Voltaire but somehow failed to inform readers that a score of Ethiopian journalists are in prison.

The local press had not reported the Ethiopian military intervention in neighbouring Somalia until Prime Minister Meles Zenawi finally acknowledged this in an interview with Reuters in October. The intervention had already been reported across the international media.

Tefera Ghedamu, who hosts the only English-language talk show on the national television network, says he avoids “interrogating” his guests, who include government ministers. He says such an approach would alienate Ethiopians whom he describes as “demure”. Ghedamu has also recently co-produced a film, Abugida, about a failed coup against the Ethiopian communist dictator Mengistu. The film's director and star, Mulualem Tadesse, says she hopes the film will open a debate about governance in the country. But Mengistu, an universally-loathed tyrant, is not a controversial topic in Ethiopia and the coup occurred 17 years ago.

 

‘Risk of torture' in prison

According to Giorgis, the journalists he visits are not being held under conditions worse than those faced by ordinary Ethiopian prisoners. The majority are detained in Kaliti prison, 15km east of Addis Ababa, where prisoners are held communally in a large warehouse made out of corrugated iron. One of Giorgis's friends, Eskinder Nega, was transferred in August to the Karchele prison in central Addis Ababa where he is held in an enclosed cell along with one or two others. He is allowed out of his cell for just half an hour each day.

Amnesty International has said that Eskinder Nega may now be at risk of torture but Giorgis claims that Nega tells him that he is not being physically abused.

Giorgis is also now able to bring books and magazines to Nega after a reading ban was lifted following the direct intervention of the prime minister. Nega is being tried on the basis of his alleged membership of the opposition party, the CUD, which he denies. He faces additional charges including high treason.

Nega's partner and publisher, Serkalem Fasil, gave birth under detention in August. She was pregnant at the time of her arrest in late-2005. The baby was born premature and underweight and has now been separated from her. Nega and Fasil are held separately and have only been able to see each other a handful of times since their arrest. Despite the intervention of a ruling party insider, Village could not obtain permission to visit the journalists in prison.

Samples of the evidence against the 14 journalists on trial, consisting of editorials and interviews with opposition leaders submitted to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), do not appear to display incitement to violence. But one article in the Amharic-language Addis Zena last year claimed that Tigrayan women trained in catering had been sent to Addis to poison opposition leaders when they ate in restaurants and hotels.

The Northern province of Tigray is home to the prime minister and the government's support base. The prime minister's party, the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which fought to overthrow the communist dictatorship of the Derg in the 1980s and early 1990s, is seen by many as dominating the governing coalition. Ethnic tensions are increasing in Ethiopia which has hitherto had a more cohesive national identity than most African states.  

Another article accused an Irish tour operator, Tony Hickey, who had worked with the TPLF during the struggle against the Derg, of being in receipt of payments of hundreds of thousands of dollars from the party. The charge was untrue and provoked a mob to gather around Hickey's house.

The trial resumed in October following a recess. Only three of the accused are mounting a defence. All of the accused face charges that carry a potential death penalty. The prime minister has said that he would prefer this not to be imposed, while stressing that it was for “the courts to decide”, in an interview with the BBC last year.π

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