Ethiopian leaders claim their country is going through a process of democratisation. But who is it for, that process, when opposition media get closed and their editors imprisoned? Elisabeth Eide, right, board member of HRH, author, freelance journalist and a lecturer and researcher in journalism at the Academy of Oslo reports from a recent visit to Ethiopia. (17-DEC-05)
This article is based on last week’s instalment of Elisabeth Eide’s column in the Norwegian weekly Morgenbladet. Photo: Bernt Eide.
After yet another wave of protests broke out early November in which at least 200 people were killed according to the opposition (the government says 45), and thousands were arrested, there is nowhere to go to have an oppositional opinion expressed. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has shut own every possible outlet for other opinions than his own, and put the editors of them all behind bars. Together with numerous other opposition leaders, they will at some point, exactly when has yet to be decided, be tried for treason, for which the maximum penalty is death. Just recently, the office of the Ethiopian Free-Press Jornalists’ Association (EFJA) was raided by the police, who confiscated computers and other equipment. EFJA’s leader Kifle Mulat is in exile. Needless to say, he would be very unwise to go home.
-No more text messages, folks
Ethiopia, a state of 77 million people, brimmed with optimism after Mengistu’s Soviet-supported regime was brought down in the early nineties. Now, the future looks a lot darker. The media, meant to be the guarantors of diversity and democracy, have once again been reduced to the sound of just one voice; Zenawi’s. The country still doesn’t have a single private radio or tv station, and what once was of a critical, oppositional press is now gone. The state and EPRDF, the ruling party, largely control the entire printing press, which thus has become an effective apparatus for censorship. Even the option of sending text messages has been blocked. Potential demonstrators thus struggle to communicate, coordinate and mobilise. As for emails and website access and distribution of information, Ethiopia is lagging behind for instance Tunisia. It is not unlikely, though, that Zenawi will ask his colleague Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali for some further censorship tricks in this area, too.
-We are fine, say the prisoners. By proxy
Under such conditions, who would dare to speak out? In recent column, published by a pseudonym in the government loyal weekly ‘Reporter,’ the unknown journalist observes that it has become practically impossible to find people willing to come forward as sources, even about the most trivial, like the weather, the traffic and so on. No name, no picture, please. Quietly, under four eyes only, staff at the University of Addis Abeba say the same. Instead of talking, some, however, will shout, if only ever so briefly. On Sunday 27 November, the annual ‘Great Ethiopian Run’ was arranged. Many likely participants stayed at home. But among those who ran, some took the opportunity to shout slogans against tyranni and for freodom for the political prisoners as they passed the government quarters. They did not run fast enough, though. Some fifty participants in the run are said top have been arrested. A few prominent prisoners have been displayed on state tv. Non-talking heads. Others speak for them, and the voice they have been given says ‘We are fine’.
