East Africa: CPJ - East Africa Records High Exodus Rates of Journalists

Addis Ababa — As the globe marks World Refugee Day on Thursday, an international press freedom group, said that the number of journalists from East African countries fleeing into exile remains on the rise.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalist's (CPJ) report, a total of 55 journalists from 21 "repressive" countries, including from five East African countries, were forced into exile.

Journalists in the East Africa nations of Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Sudan fled in higher numbers over the past 12 months, than previous years, CPJ's Journalists in Exile 2013 report says.

With the help of CPJ, 18 media workers fled their homes into exile making the East African region responsible for the highest exile rates of Journalists for the sixth consecutive year.

The latest report, CPJ said, counts only to journalists who fled due to work-related persecution, who remained in exile for at least three months, and whose current whereabouts and activities are confidential to CPJ.

The group further said the journalists were forced into exile to escape different forms of intimidation, violence, imprisonment, and death threats during the past year.

The annual SURVEY listed Iran and Somalia, followed by Ethiopia, Syria, Eritrea, Mexico, Sri Lanka and Sudan as the nations that drive out the most journalists.

"Journalists all over the world are being forced from their homes to escape persecution, imprisonment and sometimes even death," said Maria Salazar Ferro, CPJ Journalist Assistance Program coordinator.

"When journalists flee, their absence often weakens the besieged media community already struggling to provide insightful reporting about sensitive issues."

Most of the journalists from Eritrea and Ethiopia fled in fear of imprisonment, according to the report.

Eritrea and Ethiopia, who respectively are Africa's leading jailers of journalists, have long records of press repression.

Of the 30 journalists who CPJ said assisted in exile from Eritrea since 2008, many of them alleged they have been unlawfully detained in the country's prison facilities without charge or trial.

The survey indicated that exiled journalists live in very difficult conditions suffering anxiety about their families members back home and getting trapped in a legal limbo being unable to secure job.

"Forced exile can wreck journalists' lives, as well as the lives of theirfamilies," Salazar Ferro said.

Ferro said only about one-fifth of exiled journalists are able to resume working in the same field.

Source: allAfrica

Police arrest prominent journalist Temesgen Desalegn

Police on Monday arrested Temesgen Desalegn, a prominent journalist whose publications he edited and published were shut down by the government one after the other.

Temesgen, known as a fiery critic of the government in Addis, was editor of Addis Times magazine, which the government shut down recently. Prior to that, he was editor of Feteh, a popular weekly which the government also banned in 2012. Written in Amharic, his articles also appeared weekly on Ethiomedia, much to the satisfaction of the Ethiopian diaspora that has little or no access of news and information from the tightly-controlled country in the Horn of Africa.

Temesgen spent the last two years in court, defending himself against 114 charges, including allegedly “a call for the overthrow the constitutional order by violence,” “defaming the government,” and “stirring public thoughts for an anti-government uprising .” The charges carry sentences from three to up to 17 years in prison. Temesgen faces sentencing on October 27.

Following the arrest of the Pen-Award-winning journalist Eskinder Nega in September 2011, Temesgen emerged as as a journalist known for his razor-sharp commentaries. He was the lone voice of the people for writing against the high handedness of the government of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. His writings ranged from the attacks on press freedom to widespread corruption and the dangers of ethnic politics which the government fuels relentlessly.

In April this year, Ethiopia arrested six bloggers and three journalists known as Zone 9. The group was charged with ‘terrorism’, and deploying ‘encryption tools’ to conceal ‘sources.’ They still remain behind bars.

Last August the government filed charges against five magazines, a newspaper and their publishers, for allegedly promoting “terrorism and radicalism.” Most of the editors and journalists have since fled the country for fear of arrest.

Source: Etio.M