New Ethiopian law turns the heat on media

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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