Ethiopia

Alemu was arrested in 2011 and charged with plotting an act of terrorism, while the Zone 9 bloggers were arrested in 2014 and accused of using social media to create instability in the country.

Reeyot Alemu had been jailed since June 2011 on terrorism charges. Her release comes a day after the release of five other jailed Ethiopian journalists, who are affiliated with the Zone 9 collective.

The journalists were arrested in late April 2014, along with four other bloggers. All were charged with incitement and terrorism, according to news reports.

Emma Wadsworth-Jones speaks to two Ethiopian journalists living as refugees in Kenya, to get a first-hand perspective of what forced them from their country and of their lives as writers in exile.

The 25 and 26 April 2015 mark the anniversary of the detention of six bloggers and three independent journalists arrested under Ethiopia’s Anti-Terrorism Proclamation 2009. One year on there is little to celebrate.

At least six publications have had to close in recent months and around 30 journalists have fled abroad since the start of the year as a result of the biggest crackdown on the privately-owned press since 2005.

“Both the Criminal Code charges and the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation charges filed against the journalists and bloggers are equally unfounded. Therefore, the court should overturn the remaining charges and order the release of the defendants.”

An Ethiopian court this week delayed proceedings for an 11th time against six bloggers and three independent journalists, who were arrested in April in connection with their activities as part of the Zone 9 collective.

Ethiopia’s federal supreme court hassentenced three magazine owners in absentia to more than three years in prison on charges of “inciting violent revolts, printing and distributing unfounded rumours and conspiring to unlawfully abolish the constitutional system of the country.”

The court charged the nine with having links to banned opposition groups and trying to violently overthrow the government, local media reported. A tenth blogger, who was not in Ethiopia at the time of the arrests, was charged in absentia.

The Zone9 bloggers and journalists held since April have not been formally charged within the 80-day limit allowed by Ethiopia’s draconian terrorism law.

Andargachew Tsige is secretary-general of Ginbot 7, a banned Ethiopian opposition organization, and was convicted and sentenced to death in absentia in separate trials in Ethiopia in 2009 and 2012.

Prior to being dismissed from the Oromia Radio and Television Organization (ORTO), the journalists had reportedly expressed their disagreement with the violence used by the police in May to disperse student protests.

“The UN review is taking place just as Ethiopia is renewing its crackdown on free speech,” said Leslie Lefkow, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “To make this review meaningful, UN member countries should forcefully tell Ethiopia that its attacks on the media and activist groups are a blight on its human rights record.”

Six bloggers and three freelance journalists were arrested in Ethiopia and charged with working with foreign organisations that claim to be human rights activists and receiving finance to incite public violence through social media.

On 3 April 2014, Patrick Mutahi flew to Addis Ababa, where he was due to deliver a security and safety training for journalists and media workers. Upon landing, he was detained by immigration officials, who confiscated his passport and mobile telephone and told him that he would not be permitted to enter the country.