Journalists charged under anti-terrorism law in Ethiopia

Five journalists, two of them foreigners, are facing 20-year prison terms after being accused of terrorism by the Ethiopian government  under its anti-terrorism law last September 6 before a court in Addis Ababa, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Swedish reporter Martin Schibbye and photographer Johan Persson were accused of illegally entering Ogaden in the southeastern region of Ethiopia, and supporting the separatist Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF).

Government spokesman Shimeles Kemal told the news agency Bloomberg that Schibbye and Persson were “providing ONLF with professional aid and entered the sovereign country without a valid visa or legal authorization to investigate human rights violations in the region.”

The prosecutor, during the September 6 hearing, screened a propaganda video posted on the Caakara News website a few days after their arrest last July 1 in support of the charges.

Persson and Schibbye both work for Kontinent, a Swedish photojournalist agency working worldwide.

An Ethiopian court also formally charged  Ethiopian journalists Wubeshet Taye and Reyot Alemu on the same day for allegedly violating its counterterrorism law in a separate case.

The International Press Institute reported that “in June, official spokespersons told Reuters that Alemu and Taye were suspected of planning to sabotage power and phone lines, and recruiting people to destabilize the country.“

Taye and Alemu were apprehended last June 19 and 20, respectively.

Taye is the deputy editor of the weekly Awramba Times while Alemu is a columnist for the weekly Fitih.

Another Ethiopian journalist, Elias Kifle, who lives in United States, is facing terrorism charges in absentia. He is not currently detained in Ethiopia.

Kifle is the editor of the Washington-based website Ethiopian Review, a news and opinion journal. (RSF/IFEX)