Eritrea

On 19 November, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression held a live chat between award-winning journalist Susan McClelland and exiled Eritrean journalist Aaron Berhane, where they highlighted the challenges of expressing oneself in Eritrea’s rampant culture of impunity.

In January 2002, Eritrean journalist Aaron Berhane ran to freedom across the Eritrean/Sudanese border, leaving what is now considered to be one of the most censored countries in the world. Berhane’s persecution was part of a broader trend. September 2001 marked a brutal crackdown on free expression in Eritrea.

Reporters Without Borders submitted its contribution on Eritrea to the United Nations Human Rights Council. The report condemns the government’s total control of news and information since 2001.

According to a Qatar-based newspaper, the Eritrean authorities were annoyed with Al Jazeera for carrying reports about demonstrations by Eritrean exiles outside Eritrean diplomatic missions worldwide. Demonstrators expressed their support for soldiers who stormed the Eritrean information ministry in January.

Around 100 soldiers staged a mutiny and stormed Eritrea’s information ministry on 21 January, demanding the head of state-owned Eri-TV to read a communiqué on the air. The communiqué called for implementation of the 1997 constitution and for the release of political prisoners.

Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu Ahmed has been invisible in the past few weeks. The total absence of any independent press in Eritrea has allowed the government to maintain complete silence in the face of mounting questions and surging Internet rumors of his defection.

Reporters Without Borders has filed a complaint regarding acts of piracy against Radio Erena, an Eritrean exile radio station based in Paris.

The report demonstrates the gulf that exists between legal protections for free expression at the international level and the realities for journalists on the ground in Eritrea.

The case of journalist Dawit Isaac, who has been imprisoned in Eritrea without trial for over 11 years, has been referred to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Reporters Without Borders has confirmed that three journalists – Dawit Habtemichael, Mattewos Habteab and Wedi Itay – have died in the northeastern prison camp of Eiraeiro, Eritrea.

However, the rights body stopped short of recommending the Syria situation be referred to the International Criminal Court, Human Rights Watch noted.

As CPJ has documented, life in exile for any journalist generally is filled with fear and uncertainty, in addition to the struggle to find work and fulfill basic needs such as health care.

Journalist and poet Yirgalem Fisseha Mebrahtu was arrested during a raid on Radio Bana on 22 February 2009, during which its entire staff was detained.

The plea demonstrated that national laws and international treaties should provide protection to Dawit Isaac and his detained colleagues.

After hearing rumours of the death of Dawit Isaak, an Swedish-Eritrean journalist held without charge for ten years, 31 members of IFEX are asking President Isaias Afewerki to confirm that he is still alive and if so, to release him from prison.

Unconfirmed reports that Isaac has died in detention have been circulating since 27 October. On the basis of the information available, RSF does not think he has died, but it does not know where the authorities are holding him.