Ethiopia: Stop Dissipating the Press

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To: IFEX Autolist (other news of interest)
From: Ethiopian Free Press Journalists' Association (EFJA), [email protected]

The United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF)

5309 Georgia Ave. 2nd Floor
Tel: 202-291-4217 Fax: 202-291-7645
E-mail: [email protected]

Press Release

November 12, 2003

Stop Dissipating the Press

President of the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association (EFJA), Ato Kifle
Mulat, issued a statement on November 10, 2003, declaring that the organization
has received an order from the Ministry of Justice which bars it from
discharging its responsibilities to the public. He contends that the ground on
which the organization is being deprived of its rights is, to say the least,
flimsy.

In his letter of November 10, 2003, the President of EFJA cited the particular
difficulties the association has been facing since its very inception eleven
years ago. The violation of the rights of Ethiopian journalists, and what they
went through under the current regime is only a matter of record. He therefore
appealed to all concerned parties to protest the egregious measures taken by the
Ethiopian authorities against the organization.

The action to ban EFJA is a reprisal and retribution for the justifiable
criticism made by the organization of the government's new Draconian press law,
which, among other things, requires newspapers to pay tax on press releases and
gives government officials thirty days to reply to questions raised by the
press. In addition, the new press law has proposed to create the so-called Press
Council in order to oversee the activities of journalists in the country. With
such means, the government intends to completely destroy whatever little press
freedom existed at least in Addis Ababa.

This latest action by the regime demonstrates the intensification of political
repression in Ethiopia. It is a testimony to the fact that the growing challenge
and political pressure from opposing political and civic groups is forcing the
regime to drop its mask and to show itself to the rest of the world in its true
colors - authoritarian, anti-democratic and deceptive. The truth is, by banning
the organization in this manner, the regime hopes to remove the press from
exposing it and from providing a testimony to the rigging of the elections
slated for 2005. This time, the regime is shorn of all pretensions and no longer
even pays lip-service to the cause of "democracy" for the benefit of donors.

We, the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces, a coalition of fifteen opposition
political parties, therefore, strongly condemn the EPRDF's continual repressive
measures to suppress freedom of the press. We ask the international community to
mount pressure upon the regime to immediately lift its ban on EFJA. In the
absence of EFJA, the regime will continue its terrorist activities upon millions
of Ethiopians, only this time, there will be no one to expose the atrocities
against the people. The international community has a moral obligation to
sanction the regime for its increasing defiance of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.

It is critical that the international community acted in a timely fashion.

The United Ethiopian Democratic Forces

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EFJA**