Ethiopian Gov't Intensifies Digital Attacks: Human-Rights Watch

(New York) – The Ethiopian government has renewed efforts to silence independent voices abroad by using apparent foreign spyware, Human Rights Watch said today. The Ethiopian authorities should immediately cease digital attacks on journalists, while foreign surveillance technology sellers should investigate alleged abuses linked to their products.
Independent researchers at the Toronto-based research center Citizen Lab on March 9, 2015, reported new attempts by Ethiopia to hack into computers and accounts of Ethiopian Satellite Television (ESAT) employees based in the United States. The attacks bear similarities to earlier attempts to target Ethiopian journalists outside Ethiopia dating back to December 2013. ESAT is an independent, diaspora-run television and radio station.
“Ethiopia’s government has over the past year intensified its assault on media freedom by systematically trying to silence journalists,” said Cynthia Wong, senior Internet researcher at Human Rights Watch. “These digital attacks threaten journalists’ ability to protect the safety of their sources and to avoid retaliation.”
The government has repressed independent media in Ethiopia ahead of the general elections scheduled for May, Human Rights Watch said. Many privately owned print publications heavily self-censor coverage of politically sensitive issues or have shut down. In the last year, at least 22 journalists, bloggers, and publishers have been criminally charged, at least six publications have closed amid a campaign of harassment, and many journalists have fled the country.
Many Ethiopians turn to ESAT and other foreign stations to obtain news and analysis that is independent of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front. However, intrusive surveillance of these news organizations undermines their ability to protect sources and further restricts the media environment ahead of the elections. Government authorities have repeatedly intimidated, harassed, and arbitrarily detained sources providing information to ESAT and other foreign stations.
Citizen Lab’s analysis suggests the attacks were carried out with spyware called Remote Control System (RCS) sold by the Italian firm Hacking Team, which sells surveillance and hacking technology. This spyware was allegedly used in previous attempts to infect computers of ESAT employees in December 2013. If successfully installed on a target’s computer, the spyware would allow a government controlling the software access to activity on a computer or phone, including email, files, passwords typed into the device, contact lists, and audio and video from the device’s microphone and camera.

Citizen Lab also found that the spyware used in the attacks against ESAT appeared to have been updated as recently as December 2014. On November 19, a security researcher, Claudio Guarnieri, along with several nongovernmental organizations, publicly released a tool called Detekt, which can be used to scan computers for Hacking Team RCS and other spyware. Citizen Lab’s testing determined that Detekt was able to successfully recognize the version of RCS used in a November attack, but not the version used in a December attack. Citizen Lab concluded that this may indicate that the software had been updated sometime between the two attempts.
These new findings, if accurate, raise serious concerns that Hacking Team has not addressed evidence of abuse of its product by the Ethiopian government and may be continuing to facilitate that abuse through updates or other support, Human Rights Watch said.
Hacking Team states that it sells exclusively to governments, particularly law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The firm told Human Rights Watch in 2014 that “we expect our clients to behave responsibly and within the law as it applies to them” and that the firm will suspend support for its technology if it believes the customer has used it “to facilitate gross human rights abuses” or “who refuse to agree to or comply with provisions in [the company’s] contracts that describe intended use of HT [Hacking Team] software.” Hacking Team has also stated that it has suspended support for their product in the past, in which case the “product soon becomes useless.”
Media reports and research by independent human rights organizations in the past year have documented serious human rights violations by the Ethiopian government that at times have been facilitated by misuse of surveillance powers. Although spyware companies market their products as “lawful intercept” solutions used to fight serious crime or counterterrorism, the Ethiopian government has abused its counterterrorism laws to prosecute bloggers and journalists who merely report on public affairs or politically sensitive issues. Ethiopian laws that authorize surveillance do not adequately protect the right to privacy, due process, and other basic rights, and are inconsistent with international human rights requirements.
Hacking Team previously told Human Rights Watch that “to maintain their confidentiality” the firm does not “confirm or deny the existence of any individual customer or their country location.” On February 25, 2015, Human Rights Watch wrote to the firm to ask whether it has investigated possible abuse of its products by the Ethiopian government to target independent media and hack into ESAT computers. In response, on March 6 a representative of the firm emailed Human Rights Watch that the company “take[s] precautions with every client to assure that they do not abuse our systems, and, we investigate when allegations of misuse arise” and that the firm is “attempting to understand the circumstances in this case.” The company also stated that “it can be quite difficult to get to actual facts particularly since we do not operate surveillance systems in the field for our clients.” Hacking Team raised unspecified questions about the evidence presented to identify the spyware used in these attacks.

Human Rights Watch also asked the company whether contractual provisions to which governmental customers agree address governments’ obligations under international human rights law to protect the right to privacy, freedom of expression, and other human rights. In a separate March 7 response from the firm’s representative, Hacking Team told Human Rights Watch that the use of its technology is “governed by the laws of the countries of our clients,” and sales of its technology are regulated by the Italian Economics Ministry under the Wassenaar Arrangement, a multilateral export controls regime for dual-use technologies. The company stated that it relies “on the International community to enforce its standards for human rights protection.”
The firm has not reported on what, if any, investigation was undertaken in response to the March 2014 Human Rights Watch report discussing how spyware that appeared to be Hacking Team’s RCS was used to target ESAT employees in 2013. In its March 7 response, the company told Human Rights Watch that it will “take appropriate action depending on what we can determine,” but they “do not report the results of our investigation to the press or other groups, because we consider this to be an internal business matter.”
Without more disclosure of how Hacking Team has addressed potential abuses linked to its business, the strength of its human rights policy will be in question, Human Rights Watch said. 

Sellers of surveillance systems have a responsibility to respect human rights, which includes preventing, mitigating, and addressing abuses linked to its business operations, regardless of whether government customers adequately protect rights.
“Hacking Team should publicly disclose what steps it has taken to avoid abuses of its product such as those alleged against the Ethiopian government,” Wong said. “The company protects the confidentiality of its customers, yet the Ethiopian government appears to use its spyware to compromise the privacy and security of journalists and their sources.” 
Source: Human Rights Watch

Ethiopia's Zeway Prison the Equivalent of Siberia: Jailed Ethiopian Journalist

The following open letter is  from  award winning Ethiopian Journalist Woubushet Taye who has been sentenced to 14 years jail term with trumped up terrorism charges and being incarcerated at the notorious Zeway Prison. He penned the letter in Amharic ( Ethiopian official language ) for one of the few remaining critical Ethiopian newspapers called Ethio Mehdar. Article 19, the International Rights Watchdog, translated the Amharic version  of Woubshet's letter into English and published it on its website. As you go through it; Woubshet is still optimistic and has no grudges against his captors. His modesty and humbleness is beyond me considering the an imaginable horror he has to go through on daily basis. Here is the full English version of Woubshet's humble letter which should trigger an outrage from every human being around the globe against TPLF-led regime in Ethiopia.   

Ethiopian government spying on U.S.-based journalists: Digital Watchdog

Here we go again with TPLF's paranoia extending thousands of miles away as if what's doing isn't enough at home which it is good at it; SPYING. TPLF-led rulers of Ethiopia are spending billions of Tax payers' and donors' money in a country which has the lowest internet penetration (1%) even in Sub-Saharan African standards, on digital censorship and spying on everybody they deem to be their perceived or/and virtual enemy. At this moment, Ethiopians are suffering from lack of basic services (water, fuel, power, including internet networking) while TPLF and co are on this ridiculous project which should have been directed to improve the lives of millions of citizens. The following detailed research was made by foreign nationals who have no business or other interests as far as Ethiopia concerned; they are concerned international citizens who are trying to show their solidarity to Ethiopian people whose voice is being muffled and silenced by the regime alarmingly.      

Mesay Mekonnen was at his desk, at a news service based in Northern Virginia, when gibberish suddenly exploded across his computer screen one day in December. A sophisticated cyberattack was underway.

But this wasn’t the Chinese army or the Russian mafia at work.

Instead, a nonprofit research lab has fingered government hackers in a much less technically advanced nation, Ethiopia, as the likely culprits, saying they apparently used commercial spyware, essentially bought off the shelf. This burgeoning industry is making surveillance capabilities that once were the exclusive province of the most elite spy agencies, such as National Security Agency, available to governments worldwide.

The targets of such attacks often are political activists, human rights workers and journalists, who have learned that the Internet allows authoritarian governments to surveil and intimidate them even after they have fled to supposed safety.

That includes the United States, where laws prohibit unauthorized hacking but rarely succeed in stopping intrusions. The trade in spyware itself is almost entirely unregulated, to the great frustration of critics.

“We’re finding this in repressive countries, and we’re finding that it’s being abused,” said Bill Marczak, a research fellow for Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, which released a report Wednesday. “This spyware has proliferated around the world . . . without any debate.”

Citizen Lab says the spyware used against Mekonnen and one other Ethiopian journalist appears to have been made by Hacking Team, an Italian company with a regional sales office in Annapolis. Its products are capable of stealing documents from hard drives, snooping on video chats, reading e-mails, snatching contact lists, and remotely flipping on cameras and microphones so that they can quietly spy on a computer’s unwitting user.

Some of the targets of recent cyberattacks are U.S. citizens, say officials at Ethiopia Satellite Television’s office in Alexandria, where Mekonnen works. Others have lived in the United States or other Western countries for years.

“To invade the privacy of American citizens and legal residents, violating the sovereignty of the United States and European countries, is mind-boggling,” said Neamin Zeleke, managing director for the news service, which beams reports to Ethiopia, providing a rare alternative to official information sources there.

Citizen Lab researchers say they have found evidence of Hacking Team software, which the company says it sells only to governments, being used in a dozen countries, including Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan.

The Ethiopian government, commenting through a spokesman at the embassy in Washington, denied using spyware. “The Ethiopian government did not use and has no reason at all to use any spyware or other products provided by Hacking Team or any other vendor inside or outside of Ethiopia,” Wahide Baley, head of public policy and communications, said in a statement e-mailed to The Washington Post.

Hacking Team declined to comment on whether Ethiopia was a customer, saying it never publicly confirms or denies whether a country is a client because that information could jeopardize legitimate investigations. The company also said it does not sell its products to countries that have been blacklisted by the United States, the United Nations and some other international groups.

Neamin Zeleke, Managing director-ESAT

“You’ve necessarily got a conflict between the issues around law enforcement and the issues around privacy. Reasonable people come down on both sides of that,” said Eric Rabe, a U.S.-based senior counsel to Hacking Team. “There is a serious risk if you could not provide the tools that HT provides.”

The FBI, which investigates computer crimes, declined to comment on the Citizen Lab report.

Allegations of abuse

Technology developed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has provided the foundation for a multibillion-dollar industry with its own annual conferences, where firms based in the most developed countries offer surveillance products to governments that don’t yet have the ability to produce their own.

Hacking Team, which Reporters Without Borders has named on its list of “Corporate Enemies” of a free press, touted on its Web site that its “Remote Control System” spyware allows users to “take control of your targets and monitor them regardless of encryption and mobility. It doesn’t matter if you are after an Android phone or a Windows computer: you can monitor all the devices.”

Hacking Team software has been used against Mamfakinch, an award-winning Moroccan news organization, and Ahmed Mansoor, a human rights activist in the United Arab Emirates who was imprisoned after signing an online political petition, Citizen Lab reported. Another research group, Arsenal Consulting, has said Hacking Team software was used against an American woman who was critical of a secretive Turkish organization that is building schools in the United States.

Such discoveries have sparked calls for international regulation of Hacking Team and other makers of spyware, which typically costs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to experts.

By selling spyware, “they are participating in human rights violations,” said Eva Galperin, who tracks spyware use for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group based in San Francisco. “By dictator standards, this is pretty cheap. This is pocket change.”

Rabe, the Hacking Team official, said that the company does not itself deploy spyware against targets and that, when it learns of allegations of human rights abuses by its customers, it investigates those cases and sometimes withdraws licenses. He declined to describe any such cases or name the countries involved.

Ethiopian Satellite Television, typically known by the acronym ESAT, started in 2010 and operates on donations from members of the expatriate community. The news service mainly employs journalists who left Ethiopia in the face of government harassment, torture or criminal charges. Though avowedly independent, ESAT is viewed as close to Ethiopia’s opposition forces, which have few other ways of reaching potential supporters.

Despite the nation’s close relationship with the U.S. government — especially in dealing with unrest and Islamist extremism in neighboring Somalia — the State Department has repeatedly detailed human rights abuses by the Ethiopian government against political activists and journalists. There has been little improvement, observers say, since the 2012 death of the nation’s longtime ruler, Meles Zenawi.

“The media environment in Ethiopia is one of the most repressive in Africa,” said Felix Horne, a researcher for Human Rights Watch. “There are frequent cases of people who have spoken to journalists being arrested. There’s very little in the way of free flow of information in the country. The repressive anti-terrorism law is used to stifle dissent. There are a number of journalists in prison for long terms for doing nothing but practicing what journalists do.”

Taking the bait

Mekonnen was wary as soon as he received a document, through a Skype chat with a person he did not know, on Dec. 20. But the file bore the familiar icon of a Microsoft Word file and carried a name, in Ethiopia’s Amharic language, suggesting that it was a text about the ambitions of a well-known political group there. The sender even used the ESAT logo as his profile image, suggesting the communication was from a friend, or at least a fan.

When the screen filled with a chaotic series of characters, Mekonnen knew he had been fooled — in hacker jargon, he had taken “the bait” — yet it wasn’t clear what exactly was happening to his computer, or why.

That same day, an ESAT employee in Belgium also had received mysterious documents over Skype chats. Noticing that the files were of an unusual type, he chose not to open them on his work computer. Instead, the ESAT employee uploaded one of the files to a Web site, VirusTotal, that scans suspicious software for signs of their origins and capabilities.

That Web site also has a system to alert researchers when certain types of malicious software are discovered. Marczak, the Citizen Lab researcher, who had been tracking the spread of spyware from Hacking Team and other manufacturers, soon got an e-mail from VirusTotal reporting that a suspicious file had been found, carrying telltale coding.

Marczak, a doctoral student in computer science at the University of California at Berkeley, had worked with members of the Ethiopian community before, during an attempted hacking incident last April. When he received the alert from VirusTotal, he got in touch with ESAT’s offices in Alexandria and began looking for signs of Hacking Team software on the news service’s computers. He was eventually joined in the detective work by three other researchers affiliated with Citizen Lab, Claudio Guarnieri, Morgan Marquis-Boire and John Scott-Railton. They did not detect an active version of the spyware on Mekonnen’s computer, suggesting it had failed to activate properly or was removed by the hackers who deployed it. But when Citizen Lab analyzed the file itself — still embedded in Mekonnen’s Skype account — its coding tracked closely to other Hacking Team spyware, Marczak said.

The Citizen Lab team found that the spyware was designed to connect to a remote server that used an encryption certificate issued by a group listed as “HT srl,” an apparent reference to Hacking Team. The certificate also mentioned “RCS,” which fits the acronym for the company’s “Remote Control System” spyware.

The researchers discovered a similar encryption certificate used by a server whose IP address was registered to Giancarlo Russo, who is Hacking Team’s chief operating officer. The phone number and mailing address associated with that server’s IP address matched the company’s headquarters in Milan, Citizen Lab said.

The evidence of Ethiopia’s involvement was less definitive — as is common when analysts attempt to learn the origin of a cyberattack — though the Citizen Lab researchers express little doubt about who was behind the attack. The document that Mekonnen downloaded, they noted, had a title in Amharic that referred to Ethiopian politics, making clear that the attackers had deep knowledge of that country.

In addition, few governments have enough interest in Ethiopian politics to deploy a sophisticated spyware attack against journalists covering the country, Marczak said. “I can’t really think of any other government that would like to spy on ESAT.”

The biggest fear among journalists is that spies have accessed sensitive contact lists on ESAT computers, which could help the government track their sources back in Ehiopia

“This is a really great danger for them,” Mekonnen said.

Source: The Washington Post

ሰው ለሆኑ ሰዎች በሙሉ! በጋዜጠኛ ውብሸት ታዬ፤ ከዝዋይ ማረሚያ ቤት

የነገሮች ሁሉ መድረሻ እስር ቤቶች እየሆኑ መጥተዋል፡፡
‹‹ይህንን ስለመሳሰሉ ጉዳዮች መወያየት ክልክል ነው፡፡›› በማለት በተንጎላጀጀ ድምፅ ጠባቂው ተናገረ፡፡ ቀጠል አደረገናም ‹‹መነጋገር የምትችሉት ስለቤተሰብ ጉዳዮች ብቻ ነው›› በማለት ተናገረ፡፡ ይህን ከላይ ያለውን ሐሳብ የሚመለከት ማንኛውም አንባቢ፣ ጉዳይ የተፈፀመው እዚህችው እማማ ኢትዮጵያ ሰማይ ስር ባሉ አጃኢበኛ እስር ቤቶች፣ ቤተሰብ መጠየቂያው እንደሆነ መጣራቱ አይቀርም፡፡

ይሁንና በመግቢያው ላይ ያለው ጽሑፍ ተቀንጭቦ የተወሰደ ‹እናት› ከተሰኘውና እ.ኤ.አ. በ1906 ከታተመው የስመ ጥሩው ሩስያዊ ደራሲ ማክሲም ጎርኪይ ታሪካዊ ልቦለድ ገፅ 102 ላይ ነው፡፡ የዛሬ 108 ዓመት አካባቢ ማለት ነው፡፡ አቤት ርቀቱ!... ይህ ርቀት ግን ለእኛ ምንም ማለት ያልሆነ ይመስላል፤ ለምን? ቢሉ ዛሬም ይህንንና ይህን የመሳሰለውን አስፍተን እየሠራን እንገኛለን፡፡ እንዲያውም በአንዳንድ ሁኔታዎች እየተጓዝን ያለነው የቁልቁለት ሩጫ በእጅጉ አሳሳቢ ሆኖ ይገኛል፡፡

የነገሮች ሁሉ መድረሻ እስር ቤቶች እየሆኑ መጥተዋል፡፡

በታማሚዎች መነገድ ያተርፋል!? ጋዜጠኛ ውብሸት ታዬ (ከማረሚያ ቤት)

የጉዳዩ ባለቤት ባልሰራው ወንጀል 14 ዓመት ከተፈረደበት በኋላ በኩላሊት ህመም በመሰቃየት ላይ የሚገኘው ወገናችን ጋዜጠኛ ውብሸት ታዬ ሲሆን ህክምና እንዳያገኝ በቃሊቲ እስርቤት የህክምና ሃላፊዎች ወደው ይሁን ተገደው እየተፈጸመ ያለው የማሰቃያ ጨካኝ  ድርጊት እጅግ ህሊናን የሚነካ እና በማንኛውም መለኪያ እንኳን ዘጠና ሚሊዮን ህዝብ አስተዳድራለሁ ከሚል መንግስት ተብዪ ይቅር እና ከአንድ ተራ  የመንደር ዱርዬ የማይጠበቅ  ነው።  ጽሁፉን ያገኘሁት ከሌላዋ ኢትዮጵያዊ ዓምደኛ ታሳሪ ማለትም ርዕዮት ዓለሙ የፍቅር ጓደኛ ስለሺ ሃጎስ ሲሆን ላነበባችሁት እንደገና ደግማችሁ እንድታነቡት፡ ላላነበባችሁት ደግሞ የህውሃት መራሹ ጨካኝ መንግስት ምን ያህል ህገመንግስታዊም ሆነ ኢትዮጵያ የፈረመቻቸውን ዓለምዓቀፍ የሰብዓዊ እና ግለሰባዊ መብቶችን የሚያስከብሩ ድንጋጌዎችን
በመጣስ የዜጎችን መብት ከእለት ወደ እለት እየሸራረፈ በጥልቀት እንዳታዩት ይረዳችኋል ብዬ አምናለሁ። በጣም የሚገርመው ግን ውብሸት ይሄ ሁሉ ዘግናኝ ግፍ በህግ ጠለላ እያለ ቢፈጸምበትም በውስጡ በቀል ወይም ጥላቻ የለም። ዛሬም የሚሰብከው ፍቅርንና መቻቻል ነው። 

‹‹ጸሐይ በሞቀው-----›› የፍርድ ሂደት ራሴን ለመከላከል አቅርቤው ከነበረው የተከሳሽ የመከላከያ ቃል በኋላ ዳግም ድምጼን ለማሰማት የተመለስኩበት አጋጣሚ ለወራት ሲያሰቃየኝ ለቆየው የኩላሊት ሕመሜ የቃሊቲ ማረሚያ ቤት ‹‹የጤና ባለሞያዎች ››ምንም ሕክምና ሊሰጡኝ እንደማይችሉ በመግለጽ በተራቸው የሕክምና ፋይሌን መዝጋታቸው ቅር ያሰኘኛል፡፡ጥልቅ ፍቅር እና ክብር ላለኝ ለኢትዮጵያ ሕዝብ ከመልካም ዜና ጋር ብወጣ እንዴት ደስ ባለኝ ነበር፡፡ግን አልሆነማ!ጉዳዮን የበለጠ ግልጽ ለማድረግ ፣በተደረገልኝ የኩላሊት የአልትራ-ሳውንድ ምርመራ ፣በተለይ በግራ ኩላሊቴ ላይ በአሳሳቢ ሁኔታ ፣እጅግ የተከማቸ አሸዋ መኖሩ ተረጋግጧል፡፡በግራም በቀኝም ያሉ ወገኖች ይህን በማንኛውም ጊዜ መመልከት ይችላሉ፡፡(ለጠላትም ለወዳጅም አላልኩም፣ምክንያቱም በግራ እና በቀኝ በተሰለፉት ውድ ኢትዮጵያዊያን መካከል እየከረረ የመጣው የሐሳብ እና የመስመር ልዮነት እንጂ፣ጠብታ የጠላትነት መሰረት እንደሌለው ታሪክ እና እውነት ይመሰክሩታልና፡፡)ለማንኛውም የቃሊቲዎቹ ሐኪሞች ስቃዬ ሊሰማቸው አልቻለም ወይም አልፈለጉም ፡፡ከቶ ለምን ይሆን!?ይህንን ከአስደማሚ የሰቆቃ ድራማ ፣ከጀርባ ሆኖ እየመራ ያለው ባለ ረዥም እጅ ማን ይሆን?ለመሆኑስ አማራጭ በሌላቸው ታማሚዎች ጤንነት መነገድስ ስንት ያተርፋል?ምን ይሉት እርካታንስ ያጎናጽፋል?ከእኛ ስር የበቀለው የነገይቱ ኢትዮጵያችን ተረካቢ ትውልድስ ይህን አስጸያፊ ድርጊት እንዴት ይመለከተዋል ትላላችሁ ?ሁላችንንም ቸር እና ፍጹም የሆነው እግዚአብሄር ይርዳን፡፡በተለይ እኔ ባለሁበት የእስር እና የጤንነት ሁኔታ ላይ የሚገለጽ ሐሳብ ፣ስሜታዊነት ሊንጸባረቅበት ቢችል እንኳ ትረዱኛላችሁ ብዬ አምናለሁ፡፡ሌሎችን ለመውቀስም የጥላቻ ስሜትንም ለመግለጽ ተደርጎ እንዳይወሰድብኝም በትሕትና እጠይቃለሁ፡፡ክብር እና ፍቅር የሚገባችሁ ውድ ኢትዮጵያዊያን በግሌ የእስር ቆይታዬ በነፍሴ ውስጥ እንደውቅያኖስ የጠለቀ ፍቅር እና የእናንተን አጋርነት በማይነጥፍ አሳቢነት አገኘሁበት እንጂ ጥላቻን አልተማርኩበትም፡፡ ደግሞም እኛ ኢትዮጵያዊያን ነን፡፡ የታሪክ ፣የእምነት፣የወግና የባህል በአጠቃላይም የማንነት ጽኑ መሰረት አለን፡፡ትናንት የመጣን ነገ የምንሄድ አይደለንም ፣እንኖራለን ቢያንስ ትውልድ ይኖራል፡፡ታዲያ እንዴት ሕክምና በመንፈግ ፣ከቤተሰብ አርቆ በማሰር (የሁለትዮሽ እንግልት ለመፍጠር በማሰብ)ይህንን ማንነት እንጣው?አይሆንም!እግዚአብሄር ኢትዮጵያን ይባርክአክባሪ ወንድማችሁ ውብሸት ታዬ

 ምንጭ፡ ስለሺ ሃጎስ ፌስቡክ ግድግዳ

Jailed Ethiopian Dissident Blogger Eskinder Nega Honored Once Again

Eskinder Nega, an Ethiopian publisher, journalist and blogger who is serving an 18-year jail sentence under anti-terror legislation, has been awarded the 2014 Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom prize of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

Mr Nega was arrested on September 14, 2011 after publishing an article criticising his government’s use of the 2009 Anti-Terror Proclamation to jail and silence critics, including Ethiopian actor and activist Debebe Eshetu.  He was sentenced on 23 January 2012 and denounced as belonging to a terrorist organization.

In making the award, the WAN-IFRA Board sent a message to the Ethiopian government that misusing anti-terror legislation to jail journalists and those critical of his government is unwarranted and against international protocols, including the Vienna Declaration on Terrorism, Media and the Law.

“This award recognizes the courage of Eskinder Nega to speak out despite the risks that saw him