Ethiopia and Eritrea raely have things in common but this week they now rank 1 and 2 as Africa’s worst jailers of journalists. In a move that many observers have called politically motivated an Ethiopian Court has handed down an 11-year sentence to two free-lance Swedish journalists, Johann Personn (left, below) and Martin Schibbye, who are accused of illegally entering the country to report from the highly sensitive, Somali speaking region of Ogaden. In a special report from the Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ accuses the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenewi of making accusatory statements in the state-controlled media which may have pre-determined the guilty verdict and by trying to imply that the journalists were supporting the Ogaden National Liberia Front which the Ethiopian government considers to be a terrorist organization.
So far the international diplomatic response has only been only a statement of “serious concern” on the part of the European Union but CPJ, Amnesty International and Reporters without Borders say that the pair should be released immediately and unconditionally and that Ethiopia should respect press freedom and not try to use ant-terrorist legislation for muting all sensitive reporting.
