Government charges against one of Ethiopia’s last remaining independent newspaper editors on Friday and a recent forced shutdown of that paper’s presses capped a grim month of media repression in a country already deemed one of the most restrictive in the world by press freedom advocates.

On August 1, 12 days after authorities shuttered Feteh and seized 30,000 printed copies to prevent them from reaching readers, Temesgen Desalegn, the editor of the Amharic language weekly, said the Ethiopian police summoned him for an interrogation. He was charged on three counts: encouraging youth rebellion against the government and its constitution, defamation, and agitating the public by spreading false reports, he wrote in a statement posted (in Amharic) on Facebook.

This latest crackdown on free press in Ethiopia was provoked by reports about Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s health. On July 21, a day after Feteh failed to hit newsstands, Desalegn learned that authorities had put a stop on the paper’s distribution and further publication for printing items that, according to government prosecutor Berhanu Wondemeagegn, were deemed detrimental to the country’s national security. Feteh’s unseen last edition carried articles about Zenawi’s illness, allegations of power struggles inside the ruling party, and about the growing Ethiopian Muslim protests in the capital, Addis Ababa, Desalegn wrote.

The Ethiopian government, an authoritarian regime and close ally of the United States, has been repeatedly criticized by international rights groups and the UN for instituting draconian laws to stomp out opposition and that nation’s fledgling free press.

“The ban on Feteh’s latest issue illustrates the depth of repression in Ethiopia today, and authorities’ determination to suppress independent coverage of the prime minister,” Tom Rhodes, an East Africa consultant for the Committee to Protect Journalists, wrote in a blog post. Ethiopia is one of the leading jailers of reporters in Africa—only Eritrea holds more journalists in jail, according to CPJ. Ethiopia also has more exiled reporters than any other country in the world. Seventy-nine Ethiopian journalists have fled the country since 2001.

The illness and whereabouts of Ethiopia’s longtime leader has been a source of rampant online speculation for weeks, including at least two reports that he died. The government confirmed Zenawi’s illness but says he is now on a sick leave and refuses to give any more details. Government spokesman Bereket Simon went one step further on August 1, saying that the premier is “on vacation and his health is getting better by the day,” without specifying where he was “vacationing.”

Zenawi, who has been in power for 21 years, was last seen in public on June 26 receiving Somali president Sheikh Sharif Ahmed in Addis Ababa. At his last international appearance during the G-20 summit in Mexico, the prime minister appeared “thinner than usual and pale.” His apparent weight loss, which authorities blamed on a long flight to Mexico and “the herculean task he’s been shouldering for so many decades,” was first spotted by Addis Voice blog, igniting speculation about his ailment.
In the wake of Addis Voice’s posts on the prime minister’s health, state-run Ethiopian television aired a critical program focusing on the role of social media in newsgathering and distribution.

The program commentators said, among other things, that social media is bad for health, that it hampers productivity, and that it undermines citizens’ rights. Journalist Daniel Berhane, who runs a pro-government blog, tweeted, “Why bother about each rumor, when you can slow down its medium (the internet).” Activists worry that the commentary, as well as Berhane’s tweet, could be hints of a regime plan to block social networks in the country, though Berhane later retracted his comments, saying, “it was just sarcasm.”

Ethiopia already blocks diaspora-based dissident websites and blogs. Last month, local journalists reported, the social media curation tool Storify became the latest victim of Ethiopia’s tightening grip on the free flow of information. With virtually all Ethiopian-run websites and blogs and some international websites blocked in the country, social media platforms have become a gateway for information exchanged between the diaspora and activists in the country, and now activists are worried that those sites may be the next in line for blocking.

• 1
• 2