The journalists’ organisation has expressed concerns about increasing restrictions on press freedom in Ethiopia in the wake of the pending adoption of an anti-terror legislation.
The Ethiopian government has passed the Anti-Terror Proclamation which seriously restricts freedom of expression and of assembly in the Horn of Africa state in the run up to the 2010 parliamentary elections.
According to a letter from the Committee to Protect Journalists, the legislation would further restrict press freedom in Ethiopia, stating that an ongoing pattern of criminal prosecutions, administrative restrictions, and Internet censorship would further restrict media freedom.
“We are concerned that these measures, which official rhetoric has publicly justified as policies to safeguard the constitutional order, actually criminalise independent political coverage and infringe on press freedom as guaranteed by the Ethiopian Constitution,” CPJ said in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
Source: AHU – David A-O