Ethiopia releases journalists from prison before Obama trip

Fear Of Obama? Ethiopian Government Releases Reyot Alemu & Others

ርዕዮት ዓለሙ፤ ኤዶም ካሣዬና ማኅሌት ፋንታሁን ተፈቱ

"መልካም ኢትዮጵያን፣ ፍትሕ የሠፈነባት ኢትዮጵያን፣ ዴሞክራሲ ያለባት ኢትዮጵያን እስከማይ ትግሌ ይቀጥላል" - ርዕዮት ዓለሙ

• አትም
• አስተያየት
• አጋራ

ርዕዮት ዓለሙ

ሰሎሞን አባተ, መለስካቸው አምሃ, ሰሎሞን ክፍሌ

የአዲስ ፕሬስ ጋዜጣ አዘጋጅ፣ በፍትሕ ጋዜጣና ለአጭር ጊዜ ወጥቶ በነበረው ቼንጅ መፅሔት አምደኛ፣ እንዲሁም የኢትዮጵያን ሪቪው ዌብሣይት ሪፖርተር ሆና እየሠራች ሳለች ታሥራ የነበረችው ርዕዮት ዓለሙ ዛሬ ረፋድ ላይ ተለቀቀች፡፡

ርዕዮት የተለቀቀችው ተፈርዶባት ከነበረው የአምስት ዓመት እሥራት 4 ዓመት ከ17 ቀኑን ጨርሳ ነው፡፡

ርዕዮት የተለቀቀችበት ደብዳቤ በአመክሮ እንደተለቀቀች ቢናገርም በአመክሮ መለቀቅ የነበረባት ባለፈው ጥቅምት እንደነበረ ጠበቃዋና አባቷ አቶ ዓለሙ ጎቤቦና ርዕዮት እራሷም ገልፀዋል፡፡

ርዕዮት ሕገመንግሥቱንና ሕገመንግሥታዊ ሥርዓቱን በኃይል ለመናድ በመሞከር፣ በሽብርተኛ ድርጅት ውስጥ በመሣተፍ እና በሕገወጥ የገንዘብ ሽግግር ወንጀሎች ተከስሳ በከፍተኛ ፍርድ ቤቱ የ14 ዓመት እሥራትና የ33 ሺህ ብር መቀጫ ተፈርዶባት የነበረ ቢሆንም ጠቅላይ ፍርድ ቤቱ በሽብርተኛ ድርጅት ውስጥ መሣተፍ ከሚለው በስተቀር ሌሎቹን ክሦች ውድቅ አድርጎ እሥራቱን ወደ አምስት ዓመታት ዝቅ እንዲል፤ የገንዘብ ቅጣቱም እንዲሠረዝ መወሰኑ ይታወሣል፡፡ 

ርዕዮት ዓለሙ ዛሬ ለቪኦኤ በሰጠችው ቃል መልካም ኢትዮጵያን፣ ፍትሕ የሠፈነባት ኢትዮጵያን፣ ዴሞክራሲ ያለባት ኢትዮጵያን እስከማይ ትግሌ ይቀጥላል ብላለች ፡፡

በሌላ በኩል ደግሞ ትናንት ድንገት ከተለቀቁት የዞን ዘጠኝ ጋዜጠኞችና ብሎገሮች ጋር ይለቀቃሉ ተብሎ ሲጠበቅ የነበሩት ጋዜጠኛ ኤዶም ካሣዬ እንዲሁም መምህርና ብሎገር ማኅሌት ፋንታሁን ዛሬ መለቀቃቸው ታውቋል፡፡

በስሙ የምኅፃር አጠራር ሲፒጄ እየተባለ የሚታወቀው ዓለምአቀፉ የጋዜጠኞች ደኅንነት ተሟጋች ድርጅት በኢትዮጵያ ሦስት ጋዜጠኞችና ሁለት የዞን - ዘጠኝ አምደኞች ወይም ብሎገሮች ከእሥር መለቀቃቸው ያስደሰተው መሆኑን ገልጿል።

በጋዜጠኞቹ ላይ የቀረቡ፥ ሕዝብን ለአመፅ የማነሳሳትና የሽብር ፈጠራ ክሶችም መሠረዛቸው ተዘግቧል፡፡

የሰብዓዊ መብቶች ተሟጋቹ ድርጅት አምነስቲ ኢንተርናሽናል ደግሞ እስክንድር ነጋና ውብሸት ታየን ጨምሮ ሌሎቹም እሥረኞች እንዲለቀቁ ጠይቋል፡፡

ለተሟሉ ዘገባዎች የተያያዘውን የድምፅ ፋይል ያዳምጡ፡፡

Ethiopian journalist on fear of returning to prison - BBC News

Andrew HardingAfrica correspondent

"I'm still scared that I might go back to prison" says journalist Tesfalem Waldyes

It's never an easy decision: Should I interview someone who wants to talk in public, but who knows that a word out of line could mean arrest and imprisonment?

I've wrestled with the issue before in Myanmar, also known as Burma, Zimbabwe, Iraq and elsewhere.

Ethiopian journalist Tesfalem Waldyes sat in a hotel in Addis Ababa last weekend, and decided it was necessary to speak out.

"I'm afraid. I'm still scared that I might go back to prison... Maybe today, maybe this afternoon.

"[Journalism here] is a very dangerous job, because there's this red line that was marked by the government, and we don't know when we crossed that red line," he said.

'Totally absurd'

Last week Mr Tesfalem was unexpectedly released from a remand prison outside the capital, along with four colleagues.

He and eight other bloggers and journalists had been imprisoned for well over a year, facing trial under Ethiopian anti-terrorism legislation - accused of working with forces seeking to overthrow the state.

"It's totally absurd.... Our work has appeared in newspapers, magazines.

Four journalists are still in prison in Ethiopia

"We are only doing our jobs," he said, declining to speculate on whether the timing of his release was linked to a big UN development summit being hosted in Ethiopia this week, or President Barack Obama's visit later in the month.

Mr Tesfalem said he did not want to talk about prison conditions, for fear of provoking Ethiopia's government, but he was motivated to speak out on behalf of the four journalists still in detention.

"I beg all the international community, all concerned people... to push, to keep pushing... for the release of our friends.

"The charges are very similar. There is no difference between me and those guys who are still languishing in prison," he said.

Ethiopia is a de facto one party state, after the governing EPRDF won every parliamentary seat in May's election.

Although it has presided over extraordinary economic growth, and a rapid reduction in extreme poverty and child mortality in the past decade, it is regularly criticised for human rights abuses, and is often ranked as one the world's "most censored" countries.

Five Ethiopian bloggers, journalists released from custody

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Five Ethiopian journalists and bloggers who were at the centre of a long-running criminal case that government critics say was meant to silence them have been released, while four others remain in custody, rights group said on Thursday.

The bloggers – part of a group called Zone 9 that has published articles and appeals criticising government policy – and journalists were arrested in April 2014 and accused of attempting to incite violence.

“The release of these five journalists is a welcome turn of events in Ethiopia, where the number of journalists in prison has steadily increased in recent years,” said Tom Rhodes, the east Africa representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists, a U.S.-based group.

It called for release of the remaining detainees and all charges against them to be dropped. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch also reported the release of the five.

Authorities in Ethiopia could not immediately be reached for comment.

Their release comes roughly two weeks before U.S. President Barack Obama is due to visit the region. The United States is a major donor to Ethiopia and has raised the fate of the Zone 9 bloggers during high-level visits to the region.

Critics say Ethiopia – sandwiched between volatile Somalia and Sudan – regularly uses security concerns as an excuse to stifle dissent and clamp down on media freedoms.

They also point to an anti-terrorism law, passed in 2009, which stipulates that anyone caught publishing information that could incite readers to commit acts of terrorism can be jailed for between 10 and 20 years.

Addis Ababa has said the charges against the group relate to “serious criminal activities” and have nothing to do with muzzling the media.

The release comes roughly six weeks after Ethiopia’s ruling party swept a parliamentary election in which the opposition complained of harassment.

(Reporting by Edith Honan; Editing by Alison Williams)

Acting Deputy Spokesperson Jeff Rathke Highlights Two Imperiled Reporter...

Ethiopia is hacking US journalists with commercial spyware

 22

Ethiopia's government is among the most oppressive political regimes on the African continent, only trailing Eritrea in its population of incarcerated journalists. And with the country's recent implementation of off-the-shelf spyware from Italian security firm Hacking Team, Ethiopia's leaders can--and have been--expanding their despotic reach far overseas.

Per a report from Citizen Lab, published February 12th, numerous journalists working for the Ethiopian Satellite Television Service (ESAT), a network of independent Ethiopian expat journalists operating out of Alexandria, Virginia were targeted by a member of Ethiopia's internal information security apparatus: the Information Network Security Agency (INSA). Harassment from government officials is a regular occurrence for dissenting journalists in Ethiopia but this latest attack marks the second time that journalists outside of the East African nation have been targeted by the INSA.

What's more, both attacks appears to have been carried out using Hacking Team's Remote Control System (RCS) spyware. According to the Hacking Team product website, this software "is a solution designed to evade encryption by means of an agent directly installed on the device to monitor. Evidence collection on monitored devices is stealth and transmission of collected data from the device to the RCS server is encrypted and untraceable."

Using RCS, the INSA could, in theory, be used to spy on the activities of ESAT journalistsand lead authorities back to the journalist's local sources. The target's computer would of course first have to be infected with the RCS spyware. In this case, it came in the form of a bogus Word attachment sent to Managing Director of ESAT, Neamin Zeleke, in December of last year. Most troubling is that this sort of abuse should not even be possible using RCS as Hacking Team's Customer Policy clearly states that:

We monitor the international geopolitical situation and we review potential customers before a sale to determine whether or not there is objective evidence or credible concerns that Hacking Team technology provided to the customer will be used to facilitate human rights violations.

However, Citizen Lab's report suggests that not only did Hacking Team not suspend its service to Ethiopia's government following a similar attack back in 2013, but the Italian firm may have even provided the INSA with software updates in the year since--despite published accusations against the government agency by targeted journalists and the government's long and storied history of political repression. That's a clear violation of the company's internal policing policy.

Whether this latest attack against US-based journalists leads to any meaningful changes in the company's policy remains to be seen--a front page expose in the Washington Postlast year certainly wasn't able to.

[Image credit: stereotyp-0815/Flickr]