By Thewodros Getachew thhe2011@gmail.com
Ethiopia is a
country under a totalitarian
regime which tried to curtail all kind of citizen’s freedom by all possible means. The regime directly or indirectly attack freedom
of speech or write or religious freedoms or any free institutions which have
different or free opinions, members and Supporters of oppositions political
parties has been detained, persecuted and killed every day in every corner of the country because they have different opinions only or simply because they exercise their
constitutional rights that could be
either their freedom expression or freedom of assembly or any other form of freedom
.
The reputation
of harassing citizens who has
been critical to the regime is well known and well documented the last 21 years ,countless independent journalist’s end up behind bars,even columnists
on the newspapers has been charged with Anti terrorism legislation, the
legislation deliberately design to
silence the critics and to impose fear on the society.Unfortunately since the Justice system is under a direct and a strict control of
the government, politically motivated and fabricated charges staged often to punish citizens who asked
their right or who speak their minds and it is
impossible to expect justice from the system which completely corrupted and run either by members or supporters of
the ruling party therefor the outcome
of any court case on which the government has interest is predetermined in favor of the government
position .
The government continued to imprisoning and harassing journalists and dissidents, many of them have been charged and accused in connection to terrorism and terrorist organization by Anti-Terrorism Proclamation/Law (Ethiopian parliament passed the anti-terrorism law in July 2009). 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 as a part of government campaign to oppress all forms of dissident activity using the proclamation as a lame excuse to imprison citizen and to impose despair on society at large, so Freedom of expression and the practice of journalism have been held hostage by the regime.
Among the latest victim
of the ongoing use of Anti-terrorism laws that curb
freedom of expression in Ethiopia are a prominent and Award winner of
PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write a journalist and blogger
who has been jailed seven times the last 21 years Eskinder Nega sentenced 18 years recently by the usual court
drama staged by the regime, his only crime was he was independent journalist
and write and speak his mind and was critical to the government by advocating
democracy and freedom.
Photo Eskinder Nega
CPJ in one of its
letter described the Anti-Terrorism
Proclamation as follow “…On
July 7, the Ethiopian House of Peoples' Representatives passed the
Anti-Terrorism Proclamation despite concerns raised by legal experts,
lawmakers, and the private press about sweeping statutes that restrict
fundamental constitutional rights, including press freedom. Several
journalists, who asked that their names be withheld for fear of government
reprisals, told CPJ they received phone calls and warnings from officials and
government supporters to censor coverage scrutinizing the law. The proclamation
contains far-reaching statutes giving the executive branch sweeping powers to
imprison for as long as 20 years "whosoever writes, edits, prints,
publishes, publicizes, disseminates" statements deemed "encouraging,
supporting, or advancing" terrorist acts. This statute effectively
institutionalizes censorship of reporting the government deems favourable to
groups and causes it labels as "terrorist." Worse, the law grants the
federal police anLKKd national security agency exclusive discretion to carry
out warrant less interception of communications, and search …” Furthermore Human Right
Watch also said the legislation undercut freedom of speech “…The
Ethiopian government should stop using a restrictive and vague counterterrorism
law to repress free speech and due process rights,”
‘
Despite the Criticism and the concerns from many National and international
organizations against the proclamation like Amnesty International, Human right
Watch, CPJ and even from State Department and others the government shows no
sign of ceasing using the proclamation as a weapon to attack journalist’s and
dissident’s.
Photo; Andualem Arage
Andualem Arage also
found in the latest lists of victim of the ongoing use of Anti-terrorism laws that
successfully curb any kind of dissidents in Ethiopia, the jail term was
life in prison. Andualem was devoted peaceful opposition political
activist working for genuine democracy and freedom in the country while
acknowledging the constitution.
After being found
guilty of participating in a terrorist organization and preparing a terrorist
attack by the kangaroo court, the Ethiopian female journalists Reyot Alemu,
columnist for the Amharic-language weekly Fitih, who was recently
awarded the 2013 UNESCO-Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize for her
contributions to press freedom were also
sentenced to 14 years ( An appeals court reduced Reyot's sentence to five
year a subsequent appeal to dismiss the case altogether, however, was rejected ). UNESCO was recognizing
the imprisoned journalist's courage in the face of the Ethiopian government's
hostility towards press freedom. In 2012, the International Women's Media
Foundation (IWMF) recognized Reyot’s resoluteness with their Courage in
Journalism Award.
. Photo; Reyot Alemu,
The ongoing attack
against freedom and democracy and the outrageous imprisonment and harassing
journalist and dissidents has been continued aggressively and systematically by
all possible ways. Justice and democracy
has never been materialized in that
country so far , human right violation has been worsen which has been confirmed
and reported by many national and
international human right organization ,apparently it was several years ago
since Ethiopia already entitles as one of NOT FREE country’s in world by the FREEDOM HOUSE, therefor while
the government undermining
democracy and freedom and violating even the basic human rights of
citizens , it is absolutely impossible to achieve the so called (development and prosperous) in the country that can change the life’s of millions of ordinary Ethiopians !
"
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