Canadian journalists alarmed at crackdown on media

Via IFEX
June 17, 2005

Excellency,

I am writing on behalf of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), a non-profit, non-governmental organization that works to promote and protect press freedom and freedom of expression around the world.

CJFE is alarmed by the crackdown on independent media by the government of Ethiopia since elections on May 15. Journalists and members of the media community have faced harassment, censorship, detention and arrest while trying to cover election results, allegations of voting fraud and violent clashes between police and opposition groups.

On June 2, six editors from the private weeklies, Abay, Addis Zena, and Menili were detained and questioned by officials in connection with their coverage of the election. On June 6, police confiscated the cameras of Associated Press photographers Anthony Mitchell and Boris Heger as they covered violent student protests. They were later detained for seven hours by police when they went to recover their equipment that had been erased of any photographs.

The next day, the Information Ministry revoked the accreditation of Helen Mohammed, Temam Aman and Bereket Teklu of Voice of America and Taddesse Engidaw and Assegedech Yiberta, of Deutsche-Welle. The Ministry also threatened to "take similar action in [the] future if journalists are found filing false and unbalanced reports." On June 8, Fikre Gudu, a major newspaper distributor in Addis Ababa, was arrested without public explanation and has yet to be released. It is unclear whether he has actually been charged with a crime.

We call on the government to end this sustained harassment of the press by the Ministry of Information and the police and to allow the media of Ethiopia to exercise the right to freedom of expression without fear of official recrimination.

We request your Embassy convey our concerns to the Government of Ethiopia.

I look forward to receiving your prompt reply.

Yours truly,

Rod Macdonell
Executive Director

CC: Mrs. Rosaline Murray
Ambassador
The Canadian Embassy
P.O. Box 1130
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The Honourable Pierre Pettigrew.
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Lester B. Pearson Building
125 Sussex Drive
Tower A, 10th Floor
Ottawa, ON K1A 0G2

Julie Payne
Program Manager
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
489 College Street, Suite 403
Toronto ON M6G 1A5
Tel: 416 515 9622 ext: 226
Fax: 416 515 7879
Email: jpayne@cjfe.org
Web: www.cjfe.org

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