New York, November 2, 2005—Ethiopian authorities have threatened to arrest journalists and made statements that could endanger independent reporters in the capital Addis Ababa, where opposition protesters and police have clashed for the past two days. The government also appears to be using state media to smear foreign and independent media. The government threatened to…
OCTOBER 10-13, 2005 Posted October 13, 2005 Kifle Mulat, EFJA Taye Belachew, EFJA Habetamu Assefa, EFJA Sisay Agena, EFJA HARASSED Ethiopian police summoned and questioned the executive committee of the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists’ Association (EFJA), an independent organization that criticized a government crackdown on the press after opposition parties disputed the outcome of May…
New York, October 13, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned police harassment of the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists’ Association (EFJA), which criticized a government crackdown on the press after the opposition disputed the outcome of this year’s elections. Four EFJA leaders reported this week to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in the capital, Addis…
New York, August 24, 2005—A prominent newspaper distributor was released on bail Tuesday after four days in police detention in the capital, Addis Ababa. Fikre Gudu was arrested in connection with an interview he gave to the private Amharic-language weekly Asqual about his one-month imprisonment in June, according to local sources who spoke to him…
AUGUST 23, 2005 Posted September 8, 2005 Fikre Gudu HARASSED, IMPRISONED A prominent newspaper distributor in the capital Addis Ababa, Gudu was arrested and detained for four days by police. The detention was in connection with an interview he gave to the private Amharic-language weekly Asqual about his one-month imprisonment in June, according to local…
New York, August 8, 2005—Ethiopia’s Supreme Court has sentenced a newspaper editor to one month in jail on a contempt charge after the editor refused to identify an unnamed source who criticized an earlier court ruling. The editor of a second paper was fined in a related case. Tamrat Serbesa, editor-in-chief of the private Amharic-language…
New York, July 8, 2005—Ethiopia’s Supreme Court yesterday ordered three newspaper executives to reveal the name of a lawyer their newspapers cited anonymously as criticizing a recent court decision. One of the three, Tamrat Serbesa, editor-in-chief of the private Amharic-language weekly Satanaw, was jailed overnight and released after posting bail. He and the other newspaper…