'spies, traitors, and threats to national security'
and other nicknames for journalists
Hi there,
A quick shout-out to everyone who made it out to the first Sifter community meet-up last Thursday. Some of you have also texted me about not attending due to scheduling conflicts and things of that nature, so keep an eye out for the next one. Probably in August? We’ll see.
If you’re interested in knowing more about the Ethiopian National Dialogue Commission and where it stands, I’ll take a closer look at that in next week’s edition; details of what to expect now that it has started the process of collecting agenda, what its shortcomings are, and how we can expect things to play out.
I’ll also be speaking at the Press Freedom and Media Workshop hosted at the US Embassy this week, on Wednesday, on behalf of the work we do at the Ethiopian Media Women Association. If you’re in town, and have some free time this Wednesday afternoon, come through! But register first, here and here.
In other updates, ELiDA has a job opening for an Advocacy and Communications Officer and a Gender and Social Inclusion Officer, so if you know anyone interested in either position, hit reply and I’ll share the vacancy with you.
To new subscribers, welcome to Sifter; a weekly roundup of news on Ethiopia. I’m Maya Misikir, a freelance reporter based in Addis Abeba, and I curate it.
Now, to the news.
Press: media in the age of reform
We have backpedaled on press freedom in Ethiopia says a recent report by the Ethiopian Press Freedom Defenders.
Earlier in May, I wrote about how Ethiopia had gone from 130 to 141 on the global press freedom index by Reporters Without Borders (from a total of 180 countries).
Here’s an excerpt from the statement on what was behind these ‘steep slides’ on press freedom:
Shutdowns of private media outlets, the mass arrests, physical and sexual abuse of media workers across the country, and the constant hostility towards our colleagues that has forced many to leave the industry or flee the country.
Since 2019, Ethiopian authorities have detained more than 200 journalists, says the report, and the killing of Tigrai TV reporter Dawit Kebede Araya by Ethiopian soldiers in January 2021, has made him, ‘the first journalist to die on the job since 1998 per CPJ data’.
The report by the Ethiopian Press Freedom Defenders, also notes that a private media house was ‘targetted in a drone strike for the first time in the country’s history.’
Here’s a final excerpt on who the Ethiopian Press Freedom Defenders are:
Ethiopian Press Freedom Defenders is a newly established collective of over a dozen concerned Ethiopian media professionals based at home and abroad. It defends the rights of persecuted journalists and sounds the alarm about the country’s diminishing press freedoms.
The full statement, with a chronological list of arrested journalists every year from 2019 to 2024, here.
Tech: ride-hailing companies are doing the least
Last year, I pitched a story to a publication; close friends were confiding in me about how they were harassed, verbally abused, and had faced unwanted sexual advances including physical assault by drivers who worked for ride-hailing companies.
While there are a growing number of ride-hailing companies, drivers usually work for multiple service providers and the stories I was hearing were shocking. Editors shot down my pitch because there was not enough data to back it up; I was asked to provide numbers of complaints, sourced from the ride companies, no less.
Last week Wednesday, Ethiopian singer Tigist Hailu, or Igitu as she is also known, went on social media to say that a driver for FERES, a widely used ride-hailing company, had tried to rape her.
I won’t go into the vile and hateful responses she has received in the comment section of this post on X, but it is yet another prime example of what happens when women go public to share stories of the abuse they suffer. When she went on YouTube the next day, to explain what happened in detail, she had turned off comments for the post.
A few notes on what she said on that video: this incident happened around 4 AM. The driver initially started asking why she wouldn’t talk to him. Finally, he stopped the car and started groping and threatening her. She threw some food she had in his face and ran out of the car. He tore her clothes off her as she escaped.
In response, FERES has said they ‘have declined the driver from their systems’ and that they ‘will not tolerate such behavior’. Yet, the driver has only been put on probation. They went on to say that the driver would only return from suspension based on his future behavior. Instead of facilitating the initiation of criminal charges, FERES has opted to feed us word salad instead.
As for statements from other ride-hailing companies (including the biggest one, RIDE, owned by a woman), showing solidarity and initiating steps to ensure safety for women customers? Radio silence.
Two weeks ago, I wrote an update on new research that documented how women in Ethiopia are facing online abuse and hate speech and because of that are withdrawing from public spaces. The information wasn’t new to a lot of us, but the data to back it up across social media platforms was.
We hear about women facing serious sexual harassment (and rape) by drivers using these ride-hailing apps with little to no response from these companies. How long do we have to wait for data to back this one up?
Igitu’s initial statement on Twitter here, and her follow-up video on YouTube, here, both in Amharic.
Tigray: report indicates genocide
Violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law have been documented in the war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.
These acts have been committed by multiple parties engaged in the war, including those named in a recent report by New Life Institute. Here’s an excerpt on the parties:
Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) on behalf of Ethiopia, Amhara regional armed forces and/or militia (Fano) and loyal groups, the Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF), as well as the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), Tigray Defence Forces (TDF) and those loyal to them…
But the report adds that, ‘there is a reasonable basis to believe that genocide and other related acts were committed in Ethiopia against Tigrayans.’
It says not enough has been done to investigate and prosecute these war crimes committed by Ethiopian armed forces and nationals.
Here’s another excerpt on four acts mentioned that constitute genocide:
With the intent described in this report, there is a reasonable basis to believe that EDF, ASF, and ENDF members carried out at least four acts constituting the crime of genocide: killing Tigrayans, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life upon Tigrayans calculated to bring about their destruction, and imposing measures intended to prevent births among Tigrayans.
There doesn’t need to be a formal plan for genocide, nor evidence that senior officials were involved, yet, ‘this does not preclude the possibility that these acts may be attributed to Ethiopia, occasioning its responsibility as a State’ according to the report.
Ethiopia, as a country, it says, failed to prevent and then later punish these acts.
The executive summary here, and the full report, here.
Politics: election board turns to Parliamentarians
In mid-April, I wrote about the assassination of Bate Urgessa, the spokesperson for the opposition political party, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). You can go here to read more on that.
Last week, the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia asked parliamentarians to investigate the unlawful detention of other members of the OLF, according to a story on Addis Standard.
The members have been imprisoned despite court orders to let them go. This is not shocking in itself; the Federal Police Commission is infamous for ignoring court orders to release prisoners in its custody. Parliamentarians had asked the Commissioner exactly this question, last year in May.
Here’s an excerpt on why the Electoral Board has initiated this:
The..request follows a letter from the OLF dated 14 April, 2024, which stated that party leaders Abdi Regasa, Mikael Boran, Kenessa Ayana, Lammi Begna, Dr. Geda Gebisa, Dawit Abdata, and Girma Tiruneh remain in custody.
The letter alleges that these leaders are being held in life-threatening conditions by government security forces, in violation of national laws.
The Electoral Board said it was concerned, ‘about the indefinite detention, unknown locations, and conditions of the detained OLF leaders.’
The full story on Addis Standard, here.
Culture: ending on a light note
I mentioned last week that I had attended the Addis Jazz Festival which took place over three days in Addis Abeba. Those of you who go to see the shows at Ghion Hotel’s Africa Jazz Village know that this is one of the highlights of living in Addis; you get to see amazing live Jazz musicians perform every week.
I spoke to the ‘father of Ethio-Jazz’, Mulatu Astatke, during the event for Semafor Africa. Here’s an excerpt of what he said to me about the work it took to get Ethio-Jazz the recognition it has today:
Ethio-jazz is on the global stage today, but it wasn’t an easy road getting it there traveling across Europe and North America he says. “It wasn’t an easy life. It took me 50 years to get it where it is today.”
That’s fifty years of catching trains, and flights, and performing at different venues. But Mulatu, who’s 80 now, has started yet another new project, to bring Ethiopian traditional musicians, azmaris, to the stage.
The full story on Semafor Africa, here.
That’s all for this week. I’ll be back next week with more updates!
In the meantime, you can say thank you by forwarding this to friends and family (and helping them keep up with what’s going on).
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