CPJ-It will be one year this weekend
since six bloggers were arrested in Addis Ababa, just days after the group
announced on Facebook that their Zone 9 blog would resume publishing after seven months of
inactivity. As the anniversary of the arrests approaches on Saturday, Soleyana
S. Gebremichale, one of the Zone 9 founders who was charged in absentia, told
me the situation was not hopeless.
"International advocacy is
important not only to pressure the Ethiopian government but also to show
solidarity for people in prison," Soleyana, who is currently based in
Washington, D.C., said. "The words and support that we show them are their
strength in prison."
The six Zone 9 bloggers, arrested
along with three journalists not connected to the blog, were held in detention
until mid-July when a court in Addis Ababa charged
all those being held, and Soleyana, with
terrorism. Working with human rights organizations and participating
in an email encryption training session were among the activities that led to
the charges, according to reports. Their charge sheet, translated into
English from Amharic, can be found here in full.
The Zone 9 bloggers--Befekadu Hailu,
Atnaf Berhane, Natnail Feleke, Mahlet Fantahun, Zelalem Kibret, and Abel
Wabella--and three journalists--Edom Kassaye, Tesfalem Waldyes, and Asmamaw
Hailegeorgis--have now spent a full year in prison.
Among them is a lawyer and lecturer,
an economist, and an IT specialist. One of them is a data expert in Ethiopia's
Ministry of Health, another is an engineer for Ethiopian Airlines. They are
writers, advocates, and activists, but the Zone 9 bloggers are not terrorists.
According to reports, these young professionals from a range
of backgrounds were united by a desire for a more just, transparent, and
democratic Ethiopia. The Zone 9 bloggers used their blog, which is still running, as
a platform to write about social justice,
democracy, and human rights. They spoke out about censorship and
challenged corruption.
"Zone 9 existed because we had
a hope that we could contribute for the public discourse," Soleyana told
me.
The trial has been
adjourned 26 times, most recently on April 8, according to a site
that tracks its progress. The proceedings are scheduled to resume on May 26. According to
the Trial Tracker Blog, which publishes news reports and details of
campaigns about Zone 9, police continue to search for evidence to support the
charges and failed to provide the defense with access to evidence they
allegedly have. A request by the defense for the removal of judge, who the
bloggers' lawyer said had been "unfair" throughout the trial, was
rejected.
According to the same site, in some
instances family and friends were allegedly prevented from entering the
courtroom. The nongovernmental organization Ethiopia Human Rights Project reported that "Female
detainees could not be visited by friends and relatives" and that when
visits were permitted, they were limited to six people only, for a maximum of
20 minutes a day.
Ethiopian officials have repeatedly rejected external criticism of their handling of
the Zone 9 case, according to news reports including this piece by The Washington Post. According to the Post,
the government denied the bloggers were imprisoned for their writing, and said
they were on trial for attempting to sabotage the state. This sentiment was
echoed by Communication Affairs Minister Redwan Hussein who, at a press
conference in May last year, said of the Zone 9 bloggers, "Most
of them are not journalists but activists ... if someone engaged in criminal
activities, he will face prosecution regardless of his profession."
Ethiopia, ranked fourth on CPJ's
list of the 10 Most
Censored Countries, has consistently demonstrated itself to be
hostile to the idea of a free press, using charges of terrorism to justify long
jail sentences of journalists. In a series of trials documented by CPJ over
the past four years, deputy editor of Awramba Times, Woubshet Taye
was sentenced to 14 years, freelance writer Eskinder Nega
to 18 years, and Feteh journalist Reeyot Alemu
to 14 years, reduced to
five on appeal. Prison authorities were accused of denying adequate
medical attention to Reeyot
and Temesghen
Desalegn, the owner of Feteh magazine. And in two reports
released by Citizen Lab, based at the University of Toronto, researchers said
Ethiopia appeared to have used malware and surveillance tools to try to monitor
Ethiopian journalists around the world.
Soleyana welcomed international
attention to her colleagues' plight. "Though it seems like the impact is
slow and sometimes invisible I believe that the international pressure would
contribute to change the decision of the Ethiopian government," she said.
Despite international criticism, Ethiopia
has been defending its anti-terror laws for years. Speaking to
the BBC in 2014, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn
defended them as being similar to that of the UK terror laws. In 2012, the then
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi defended the laws in Parliament. In response to a critical
op-ed by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times, the country's Foreign
Ministry argued that Ethiopia did respect press freedom, according to
reports.
From Al-Shabab's attack at Garissa in Kenya this month and Boko Haram's relentless
violence against Nigerians, to the senseless acts of groups such as al-Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb, you don't have to look far to find examples of terrorism across the
African continent.
But as former High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay stressed
in May last year, in response to Ethiopia's crackdown on the press, "The
fight against terrorism cannot serve as an excuse to intimidate and silence
journalists, bloggers, human rights activists and members of civil society
organizations."
In a statement this week, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the
promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while
countering terrorism, Ben Emmerson, and the UN Special Rapporteur on religious
freedom, Heiner Bielefeldt, said: "By actively promoting and protecting
human rights, states contribute to preventing terrorism in an effort to address
its root causes and risk factors."
At a time when national leaders
should be protecting rights and providing reassurance from very real threats
like these, many governments choose instead to crush those voices most in need
of being heard. This has certainly been true in Ethiopia.
Source: CPJ
