From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Tue Aug 11 2009 - 10:20:44 EDT
Ethiopia pushes Kenyan TV to drop report on rebels
By Mohamed Keita/Africa Research Associate
Last week, the Ethiopian government tried to force private Kenyan
broadcaster Nation Television (NTV) to drop a four-part exclusive report
on separatist rebels in southern Ethiopia. NTV aired the first two parts
of "Inside Rebel Territory: Rag-Tag Fighters of the Oromo Liberation
Front," which led Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya to accuse the Nation
Media Group of giving a platform to a terrorist organization, the daily
Nation reported. The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), whose Web site is
among several authorities block in Ethiopia, is fighting for greater
autonomy for the Oromos, the largest ethnic group in the south of the
vast Horn of Africa nation.
"Clearly, officials at the Ethiopian Embassy did not want NTV to air
this program. We repeatedly explained to them that this is not
possible," Linus Kaikai, NTV's managing editor of broadcast news told me
today. The Kenyan Foreign Affairs Ministry was also involved in
attempting to get the station to drop the story, he said. "No demands
have been agreed to," Kaikai added, saying that the final two parts will
air tonight and Tuesday.
The Ethiopian administration, whose leaders were once guerilla fighters
allied with the OLF, has sought to censor international media outlets'
coverage of rebel groups. In 2008, authorities accused Qatar-based
satellite network Al-Jazeera of "direct and indirect assistance to
terrorist organizations" after the station aired an exclusive report on
the separatist Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), in southeastern
Ethiopia. Al-Jazeera continued to air the program. In 2007, Ethiopian
authorities detained three New York Times journalists for five days for
reporting on the ONLF.
Local independent journalists who have reported on rebel groups have
landed in prison on various criminal charges, including publication or
distribution of "false news likely to incite violence" or "membership in
a terrorist organization." In one case, three journalists, Garuma
Bekele, Tesfaye Deressa, and Solomon Nemera of the defunct
Oromo-language weekly Urji, spent four years in prison over an article
challenging official claims about the killing of three alleged OLF
members by government forces. Numerous state-employed journalists
perceived to have sympathies for the OLF have also been thrown into
prison on spurious accusations, including former Ethiopian Television
News Director Dhabessa Wakjira.
On top of all that, Ethiopia recently enacted draconian anti-terror
legislation, which criminalizes any reporting the government deems
favorable to groups and causes it labels as "terrorist." In other words,
reporting the activities or statements of such groups could be
interpreted as glorifying or aiding their causes. An Ethiopian reporter,
who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisal,
told me there was no public government reaction to the NTV controversy,
and most local media did not report it. Another one said independent
coverage of such stories was difficult without a public statement from
the government. "You cannot initiate [such] stories if there's no
government reaction, else you run the risk of being labeled as someone
who's promoting their movement," he said.
http://cpj.org/blog/2009/08/ethiopia-pushes-kenyan-tv-to-drop-report-on-
rebels.php
OLF rebels in Ethiopia. (Reuters) <http://cpj.org/blog/OLF Ethiopia -
Reuters.jpg>
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