Attacks on the Press 2010: Africa Analysis
Across Continent, Governments Criminalize Investigative Reporting By Mohamed Keita Across the continent, the emergence of in-depth reporting and the absence of effective access-to-information laws have set a collision course in which public officials, intent on shielding their activities, are moving aggressively to unmask confidential sources, criminalize the possession of government documents, and retaliate against probing…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Ethiopia
Top Developments • Editor Dawit Kebede honored with International Press Freedom Award. • Authorities jail critical journalists, jam VOA Amharic broadcasts. Key Statistic 7: Hours that two newspaper editors were interrogated as Zenawi gave speech on freedom of choice. The ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front, or EPRDF, imprisoned journalists, jammed foreign broadcasters, and blocked…
Facebook gets caught up in Egypt’s media crackdown
As CPJ has previously documented, journalists in Egypt have faced a deterioration in press freedom in the run-up to the parliamentary vote on Sunday. Editors have been fired, TV shows suspended, and regulations over SMS texting suddenly tightened. In the final few days, a new forum found itself caught up in this attempt to control…
Journalists on the frontlines of press freedom honored
New York, November 24, 2010–Outstanding journalists at the forefront of the battle for press freedom in Ethiopia, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela were honored Tuesday evening at the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 20th Annual International Press Freedom Awards benefit dinner.
Dawit Kebede IPFA 2010 Video
Dawit Kebede is managing editor of the Awramba Times in Ethiopia. After the government’s crackdown on the press in 2005, he survived a 19-month prison term to restart the only remaining independent media outlet in Ethiopia. Kebede is a 2010 CPJ International Press Freedom Awardee. Read about other awardees here.
CPJ Press Freedom Awardee: ‘I always wanted answers’
The last few weeks have been extremely busy for everyone at CPJ as we’ve been preparing for the 2010 International Press Freedom Awards. Today’s press conference in Washington will be followed by a series of events culminating in our awards ceremony Tuesday in New York. As always, the awardees make it special.
In exile in the U.S., Ethiopian journalist struggles forward
After almost a year in exile in America, an icy ocean away from his home in Ethiopia, journalist Samson Mekonnen, left, only recently received his work permit in Washington. In the interim, like most journalists undergoing the emotionally and financially grueling resettlement process, he has relied on friends, family, and international organizations like CPJ to…
As Zenawi speaks, editors are grilled in Ethiopia
On Wednesday, just a few hours before Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi delivered the keynote address at the World Leaders’ Forum at New York’s Columbia University, two journalists back in Addis Ababa endured nearly seven hours of police interrogation.