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NEWS and Events
Another
Assault on Press Freedom
London,
16 July 2003
Eritreans
for Human and Democratic Rights - UK (EHDR-UK) is alarmed by yet another
arrest of a journalist. Mr Aklilu Solomon, Voice of America (VOA)
correspondent, was arrested on Tuesday, 8 July 2003. Armed plainclothes men
took him to an undisclosed location. The authorities had seized his
licence ten days before his arrest. His arrest was carried out under the
pretext of failure to fulfil his 'Sawa' military duty. According to VOA,
the US funded radio station, Mr Aklilu Solomon had fulfilled part of his
military service five years ago and was certified as medically unfit for
the remaining part.
It
is, however, common knowledge that the real reason for his arrest was his
'unpatriotic' reportage of the people's reaction to the disclosure of
Eritrea's war-dead which contradicted state media coverage. The state
claimed that the families received the news of their dead children with
'patriotic fervour' - with vivacity and ululation, while Mr Aklilu
Solomon's live reportage showed just the opposite.
This
is another unacceptable abuse of state power against law-abiding citizens
and another means of controlling the information coming out of Eritrea.
Arbitrary arrest and disappearance have sadly become the norm in today's
Eritrea.
It
is to be remembered that in September 2001, the Eritrean government
closed all private media outlets in the country and, with the exception
of few who managed to flee the country, arrested all the editors and
journalists associated with them. Eighteen journalists (including
Solomon) now languish in prison, most of them held incommunicado in
unknown locations. The Eritrean president recently described these
journalists as 'spies'.
Eritrea
has a bad record of press freedom. In fact, on World Press Freedom Day,
May 3, 2003, CPJ named Eritrea one of the world's 10 Worst Places to be a
Journalist. PFDJ, the ruling party has a firm grip on the state media,
whose employees face strict censorship.
EHDR-UK
condemns this act in the strongest terms and calls on the Eritrean
authorities to immediately release Mr Aklilu Solomon, his colleagues and
all those arrested without due process of law.
Board
of Directors
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