Good news about media freedom in Eritrea is rare — so it’s understandable that delight and relief greeted the announcement last November that Isaac Dawit, an Eritrean journalist with Swedish nationality, had been released after four years in prison.
Sweden’s ambassador to the East African country, Bengt Sparre, issued congratulations. Dawit’s family — waiting back in Sweden — was overjoyed.
But days after the news broke, Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu told the Agence France-Presse news agency that Dawit had merely been released for hospital tests — and was going directly back to prison.
What went wrong? A miscommunication between the Swedish ambassador and Eritrea’s government? A change of heart on the part of officials in Asmara irritated by press freedom campaigners? The truth may never reach the public sphere.
Described by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) as one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists, Eritrea has at least 13 reporters in prison. And as Dawit’s story shows, campaigning on the issue is delicate and perhaps even counter-productive.
“They say it’s an internal issue — nothing to do with other countries,” one diplomat commented. “And it’s better not to give them [the journalists] a trial because Eritrea still has the death penalty — that’s the message we get.”
In 1991, a euphoric Eritrea won independence from neighbouring Ethiopia after 30 years of struggle, and enormous human suffering. Eritreans returned from overseas, the economy grew, and then United States President Bill Clinton admiringly described head of state Isayas Afewerki as a “new leader” for Africa — marking a break with the previous generation of oppressive and corrupt rulers.
But the dreams turned sour.
The Eritrean-Ethiopian relationship deteriorated, and the two countries fought a border war between 1998 and 2000. By the time a peace deal was signed, a quarter of Eritrea was occupied, its infrastructure destroyed and a third of its population displaced. Isayas was also accused of missing out on opportunities for better peace proposals.
Inevitably, many in Eritrea — including the journalists now jailed — questioned the government’s handling of the war and other political issues.
Then, while the world’s attention was distracted by the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington in September 2001, a crackdown on the media began.
“With the world’s attention thus diverted, Isayas ordered the arrest of the G-15 [a group of 15 leading politicians], the closure of the country’s entire private press, and the detention of the offending media’s leading editors and reporters,” says veteran observer of Eritrean politics Dan Connell in his book Conversations with Eritrean Political Prisoners.
Since then, little has been heard of the journalists. The charges against them apparently include avoiding the military draft and threatening national security.
“The journalists have virtually disappeared since the September 18 2001 press crackdown and closure of privately owned newspapers. Eritrean officials have refused to provide information on their health, whereabouts or legal status,” noted a CPJ press release in September last year.
“Some reports say they may have been tortured. The government’s monopoly of news and the families’ fear of intimidation make it extremely difficult to gather information about the detainees.”
Even the number of journalists imprisoned is unclear.
In November 2005, the Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) put the number at 13. A few months later, the CPJ said 15 journalists were still jailed. According to the US government, “at least” 15 are in custody — although the number may be as high as 16.
With many of the reporters virtually unknown at the time of their arrest, it has proved difficult to keep their plight on the international agenda. In addition, they are competing for attention with political detainees and persecuted religious minorities, among others.
Locally, most Eritreans have no access to information about the reporters or much else, but that approved by the government; besides, they are working hard just to look after themselves and their families. Opposition to the administration may not have been totally crushed in Eritrea, but it is completely silent.
Reports by the CPJ, RSF — and the US government’s annual report on human rights — mean the fate of the imprisoned journalists is not forgotten. And the issue will doubtless come under discussion on May 3, when the global community marks World Press Freedom Day. But that seems to be as far as it goes.
Diplomats have other things to worry about. New conflict with Ethiopia is still a possibility, as is a humanitarian crisis linked to government restrictions on emergency aid for helping the country to address the effects of a severe drought.
Journalists thought to be in prison (Sources: CPJ, Amnesty International):
Arrested January 1999
1. Zemenfes Haile
Arrested June 2000
2. Ghebrehiwet Keleta
Arrested September 2001
3. Amanuel Asrat
4. Medhanie Haile
5. Yusuf Mohamed
6. Mattewos Habteab
7. Temesgen Ghebreyesus
8. Said Abdelkader
9. Dawit Isaac
10. Seyoum Tsehaye
11. Dawit Habtemichael
12. Fesshaye “Joshua” Yohannes
Arrested late 2001
13. Selamyinghes Beyene
Arrested February 2002
14. Hamid Mohammed
15. Saidia Ahmed
16. Saleh Aljezeeri
Journalists arrested and since released: Ruth Simon, Semret Seyoum and Aklilu Solomon
— IPS