Ethiopia: 5 Popular Govt critic Magazines & a Newspaper facing criminal charges

The Ethiopian Ministry of  Justice, in its vaguely worded statement released on a government owned TV channel on August 4, 2014 disclosed that it is filing criminal charges against top-selling and very popular privately owned government critic print media and their respective publishers for “repeated acts of incitement and dissemination of false rumors intended to cause a violent overthrow of the constitutional order and to undermine the public trust on the government”. Meanwhile, the defendants revealed that they heard about their charges from the media like any ordinary citizens as opposed to receive a formal written charge which is supposed to be a normal procedure. The list of the accused privately owned press and their publishers are the following:

* Addis Guday Weekly Magazine,  by Rose publishing P.L.C.;

* Lomi Weekly Magazine, by Dadimos Publishing P.L.C;

* Enque Bi-weekly  Magazine by Alemayehu Publishing P.L.C;

* Fact Weekly Magazine by Yofa Publishing P.L.C; 

* Jano Bi-weekly  Magazine by Asnake Publishing P.L.C;

The sixth one is a newly launched weekly newspaper called Afro-Times, which is affiliated to Lomi Magazine.

The statement claimed that the decision to lodge criminal charges was taken after several attempts to convince the magazines to change their practices. It also claimed that the public has been "demanding" for legal measures through various channels. Oh really? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Not surprisingly, Ethiopia's Premier assured the US at the US-Africa summit yesterday ( August 5, 2014) that his government is working hard to fight "terrorism"; err since when unarmed bloggers, journalists, leaders of civil societies and opposition parties have become terrorists? 

Source: ERTA (Ethiopian Radio & Television Agency)