Fleeing Ethiopia's turmoil
By Kefale Mammo Posted Sun, Apr 1 2001
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s lethal policies have brought havoc upon the free press in Ethiopia. Since 1993, the Zenawi regime’s policies have resulted in the closure of more than 250 titles of the free press. They have subjected 25 journalists and publishers to excessive fines. Another 27 journalists have jail sentences ranging from three months to 36 months, and 43 have fled the country.
The regime has been retaliating against independent journalists and publishers harshly, particularly since 1993. In the course of the regime’s rule (or misrule), the elaborate stipulations of press law were created to perpetuate pre- and post-publication censorship and to stop press freedom from taking root in Ethiopia and advancing the democratization process. The government uses the bureaucracy, police force, security agencies, the judiciary and the economic machinery of the state to hunt and destroy independent journalists and publishers who work for peace and democracy in the one-party, one-ethnic dictatorship.
Led by the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association (EFJA), founded in March of 1993, independent journalists are putting up fierce resistance and debunking the hidden agendas and motives of the regime. The free press is also doing its utmost to enlighten international institutions, diplomats and the press corps in Addis Ababa by divulging the violent human rights abuses, undemocratic practices and unlawful activities of the state.
Dozens of independent journalists and publishers are regularly charged in politically motivated, flimsy indictments of disturbing the peace, inflaming public opinion, fomenting dissension and endangering public safety and security. The courts sentence journalists to politically prescribed long-term jail time and heavy fines ranging from 5,000 to 20,000 birr (US$600-2,400).
Along with the frequent harassment, intimidation, police interrogations and threats of torture, other attacks have been made against the media. The private tabloid Tobia’s office was burned down. EFJA’s office was robbed of its internationally donated computers and fax-machines, and armed agents of the state forced news vendors in the town of Shoa Robit, North-Shoa, to burn copies of the monthly A’imiro. The regime has not absolved itself from the alleged crime of arson and larceny by bringing the criminals to justice.
The state’s monopoly over the press includes ownership and management of most of the media and all of the large printing firms that are capable of producing the tabloids and the broad-sheet newspapers of the country. It uses the state-owned press to mark up the cost of producing newspapers, making the sales prices of private tabloids more expensive and out of reach for the majority of the reading public. Moreover, rising costs of printing will wipe out the meager profit margins that may accrue to the poorer publishers.
Independent journalists continue to work despite all of the obstructions thrown at them by the government. About eight percent of independent journalists live year-round in prisons in Ethiopia.
According to EFJA’s current chairperson, Kifle Mulat, at least 16 independent journalists have lost their lives by direct attacks from state agents, by suicide or by causes intimately related to their profession.
Gizachew Mengistu, of the weekly Moged, was shot dead in broad daylight in the provincial town of Debre Berhan. Tesfaye Tadesse, founder, publisher and editor of the monthly, Mestawet, and the weekly, Lubar, was hacked down on his doorstep in Addis Ababa. Worku Mekonnen of the weekly Maebel committed suicide in his home in Addis Ababa a year ago after enduring long police investigations. Abay Hailu of the newspapers Wolafen and Agere died in prison after 24 months without any court decision. Two more journalists, Kumsa Burayu of Wolafen, and Bekele Mekonnen Rabo of Urji, disappeared years ago and are still unaccounted for.
One of the most glaring instances of the intensity of the government-driven persecutions of the free-press journalists is the large number of those who have fled the country in exile to save their lives. The exodus of the 43 journalists manifests the ever-increasing intensity of the ordeals faced by the press in Ethiopia. Although hindered by their exile, these journalists are working from abroad and throwing their human resources together to continue their work toward freedom of expression.
EFJA has enjoyed the support and firm solidarity from the international media and human rights organizations. The Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists has been taking the lead in publicizing the reports and statements of EFJA among millions of its members around the globe. It is helping to motivate international media and human rights organizations to protest against the arrests, fines and alleged killings of EFJA members by the regime.
The dispatching of a number of international fact-finding missions to Ethiopia have helped other professional bodies, such as the Reporters Sans Frontiers of Paris and the Committee to Protect Journalists of New York, to gauge appropriately the degree of hostility and cruelty of Meles Zenawi against press freedom.
EFJA struggles to break asunder the inveterate marriage of convenience between the state and the media in Ethiopia and to make the media serve, without any restraint, the public, which pays the taxes for its sustenance.
It is time for the international community to make the crucial choice, which is to effectively support Ethiopian free-press journalists and their professional organization, EFJA, attain their noble end: enabling press freedom to take root in Ethiopian Society.
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Ethiopian Journalists in Exile
Kibret Mekonnen, 30, Kinfu Assefa, 30 and Kefale Mammo, 63 are living in exile in Amsterdam. Together, they are on the international committee of the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association (EFJA). The other 40 journalists are scattered all over the world and are too far apart to keep effective communication with each other.
Kefale Mammo is a veteran journalist of Ethiopia with experience in print, electronics media and news agency fields. He was the editor in chief of Ruh, the successful private monthly in Ethiopia.
His journalistic profession and his responsibility as the first chairperson of EFJA set him against the Meles regime, and he was detained, fined and threatened with death. Currently he is the chief coordinator and commentator of ETHIO TV.
Kefale, in addition, is writing for various publications, including Ra’eey, an Amharic quarterly journal of political and general themes published in Frankfurt, Germany. Kefale is chairing International Committee of EFJA, in which Kibret and Kinfu also hold executive positions. He has resided in Amsterdam since March 1997.
Kibret Mekonnen is getting his master’s degree in audiovisual media, documentary film directing and camera work. He was one of the founding editors of the monthly and weekly A’imiro. Kibret left Ethiopia due to imminent danger to his life and has been living in Amsterdam since January 1995. He founded The Foundation of Ethiopian Information and Documentation in the Netherlands and is chief film director, cameraman and editor of ETHIO TV, an offspring of the Foundation.
Kinfu Assefa has just completed a training course in computer science. He was one of the owning founders and the chief editor of the weekly Mogad until he left Ethiopia in January 1995. Kinfu is currently employed as a full time computer programmer in Amsterdam. He is devoting his spare time to gathering news from the Internet and other sources for ETHIO TV. He is also one of the chief newscasters of ETHIO TV.
The trio in Amsterdam runs EFJA’s international committee. Their principal objectives are to keep track of the journalists in the diaspora, to release a list of them once a year and to help journalists at home in the struggle to rid Ethiopia of her twin archenemies, despotism and thought control.
They are co-producing and broadcasting a weekly hour-long television program for ETHIO TV, which consists chiefly of news, commentaries, interviews, cultural music, entertainment and documentaries. It is geared toward satisfying the needs of the Ethiopian community in the Netherlands. The program focuses on Ethiopia, Ethiopian affairs and related information.
The group hopes to broadcast countrywide, but cannot find the financial means. They solicit subsidies from various social institutions to run the program, and they also receive assistance from professional, humanitarian and donor organizations.
Their address:
Stichting FEIDIN, P.O.Box 93530, 1090 EA
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tel. +31 20 77 02 286
Fax +31 20 46 33 480
Web site: Ethiotv.net
Email: Afrovision.kibret@chello.nl
kefalemammo@hotmail.com