New Ethiopian law turns the heat on media

New Ethiopian law turns the heat on media

27 August, 2011 | Argaw Ashine
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Ethiopia’s tightly-

controlled media is not

known for particularly

sticking their necks out

over controversial issues.

But a new law recently

passed by an

overwhelmingly

government-controlled

parliament has had top

executives wringing their hands over its potential ramifications.

The law expressly bans any form of communication with groups
designated as terrorists, including reporting even a press release or
interviewing their members. According to the spirit of the law, any
such act will be considered as disseminating terror-related
information and the publisher of any such article would be jailed.

Addis Ababa journalists and newspaper owners remained
confused as to how to treat the new law which was endorsed in
2009 but has only become effective now. It is an indictment of the
environment that exists in the country that some existing publishers
were afraid of being quoted, saying they preferred not to “quarrel
with the government”, even if the law was restrictive.

Dawit Kebede, a Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Award
winner and editor-in-chief of one of the country’s remaining
political newspapers, Awramba Times, says the law provides a
pretext for the government to intimidate and even arrest journalists
who fall afoul of its wording.

Kebede said the regulations were a government campaign to
oppress all forms of dissident activity. The New York-CPJ says
the law makes it difficult for Ethiopian reporters to cover the
activities of opposition figures and rebels without risking a 20-year
prison sentence.

But lawyer and government spokesperson Shimeles Kemal denied
the accusations, saying that the media have nothing to be afraid of
in the new law if they were not involved in criminal acts or
harbouring other such agenda. Shimeles said that the law was
meant to protect Ethiopian citizens against increasing acts of
terrorism. “Some of them are not innocent, they have an agenda,
that is why they are afraid,” he said.

The government has for years accused some private newspapers
of being anti-development and running narrow political interests.
And to further drive home its point, the government is already
implementing the law and recently arrested two journalists;
Awaramba Times deputy editor Wubshet Taye and Reyoot
Alemu, a columnist with the same paper.

An Ethiopian court using the law subsequently charged them along
five opposition politicians with an alleged plot to bomb
government infrastructure. One of the most popular newspapers,
the Addis Neger, was in 2009 forced to close and its journalists
fled into exile.

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Courtesy