Ethiopian authorities have intensified their crackdown on press freedom in a cynical attempt to silence criticism in the lead-up to the country’s national election on 1 June, Amnesty International said today.
In recent months, Ethiopian authorities have launched a campaign of repression against independent media by arbitrarily arresting, forcibly disappearing and unlawfully surveilling journalists. Other journalists have had their accreditation revoked, while several media houses have lost their licenses arbitrarily.
“Ethiopian authorities should reverse these increasingly authoritarian tendencies and immediately end this campaign of repression against the media. Ethiopia’s development partners and relevant regional and international human rights bodies must also speak out against the systematic dismantling of the country’s independent media as citizens prepare to vote”, said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa.
Six media representatives interviewed by Amnesty International, who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of reprisals, reported that their coverage of the upcoming election has been severely affected by ongoing hostility against the media.
They said that journalists frequently self-censor to avoid reprisals by authorities. Two of them noted that their already limited pre-election coverage has been further hampered by a lack of transparency from the election board. Another told Amnesty International that almost all opposition politicians now fear speaking to the media.
“I had to drop a story because every quoted politician was anonymous, as they refused to disclose their identity for fear of reprisals for criticizing the government or the ruling party,” said one news editor interviewed by Amnesty International.
Several of the interviewees also told Amnesty International that the election board has imposed an “oath”, first introduced in 2021, as a precondition for official accreditation to cover the election.
The Ethiopian Election Board is an independent constitutional body established to conduct elections across Ethiopia’s federal and state constituencies.
This oath, which Amnesty International has reviewed, requires media organizations to comply with “ethical responsibilities and obligations set out in the directives for covering elections” and to acknowledge that it is against the law to publish “false information about the Board”.
The restrictions outlined in the oath contain words that can be broadly interpreted.
“Press freedom and the free flow of information are vital during elections. The oath required by the election board is clearly a tool for controlling what is discussed in public about the upcoming election and gives it the power to censor uncomfortable information or determine what is considered to be true or false,” said Tigere Chagutah.
In recent months, public statements by top government officials have framed critical and independent reporting as threats to national interests, a pretext that has been used to justify the ongoing crackdown on media freedom. Just two months ahead of the election Redwan Hussien, Ethiopia’s intelligence chief, and the prime minister’s advisor, Daniel Kibret, made this kind of statements, which have been echoed by officials from the country’s media regulatory body, the Ethiopian Media Authority (EMA). Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has also frequently used rhetoric that frames the free press as a threat to national interests.
“A smear campaign against the media that frames independent journalism as a national threat, just weeks before the election, is an example of how authoritarian tendencies are taking root in Ethiopia and are being deployed to consolidate power”, said Tigere Chagutah.
Background
Over the past year Ethiopian’s media regulatory body, EMA, has arbitrarily suspended the registration of Addis Standard and Wazema Radio, while revoking the accreditation and licenses of Reuters journalists. The revocation of accreditation for the Reuters journalists was linked to the outlet’s coverage of a military base inside Ethiopia hosting the Sudanese armed group, the Rapid Support Forces.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Amnesty International.
