Ethiopia suspends licence of independent newspaper The Reporter
The Ethiopian Media Authority says the English and Amharic outlet published content against national interests; Human Rights Watch wants the ban lifted.
Ethiopia's media regulator has suspended the licence of The Reporter, one of the country's few independent newspapers, indefinitely, accusing it of publishing material that contradicts the country's "national interests".
The Ethiopian Media Authority announced the decision in a Facebook post on Monday, 2 November, saying the print and online outlet was "ordered to remain fully suspended from publication and broadcasting indefinitely" and that the ban took effect immediately. The regulator said the suspension would last "until legal and professional ethical obligations are fully met". It said The Reporter had "repeatedly" disseminated content against national interests and had published distorted information that negatively affected foreign investment, tourism and diplomacy. The authority also accused the paper of carrying "unbalanced and biased" reports.
The Reporter publishes newspapers in English and Amharic and runs a news website. Human Rights Watch, in a statement carried by AllAfrica, described it as one of Ethiopia's oldest media institutions and the country's last privately owned Amharic newspaper.
Human Rights Watch called on the Ethiopian government to lift the ban and said the suspension was part of an "ongoing assault on the media and civic space". The organisation said authorities have increasingly used vague claims about national interests to shut down critical reporting, and cited the October detention of journalists Samuel Getachew and Amanuel Gebremedhin, held for eight days and charged with reporting news that would cause disruption in Addis Ababa. It also noted that days before the suspension The Reporter published an editorial warning that Ethiopia's privately owned press was going through one of its most precarious periods and calling for reforms.
The suspension follows earlier restrictions. In February, authorities revoked the licence of the independent outlet Addis Standard, which has appealed the decision. In June, the correspondent for the French daily La Croix was expelled.
Reporters Without Borders ranks Ethiopia 148th of 180 countries in its press freedom index. According to the organisation, five journalists are currently detained in the country, four of them held for nearly three years on terrorism charges that carry the death penalty, although capital punishment is rarely imposed.
Ethiopia has around 130 million people, the second largest population in Africa.
How the reports differ
Africanews led with the regulator's Facebook statement and placed the suspension in a sequence of earlier restrictions, naming the February revocation of Addis Standard's licence, the June expulsion of La Croix's correspondent and the five journalists RSF says are detained. The account carried by AllAfrica was a Human Rights Watch statement, which called the move part of an "ongoing assault" on Ethiopian media, described The Reporter as the country's last privately owned Amharic newspaper and named two journalists detained for eight days in October, details Africanews did not carry. AllAfrica also reported that the paper had warned days earlier, in an editorial, that Ethiopia's private press was in one of its most precarious periods; Africanews did not mention the editorial. Ahram Online carried the suspension as a headline without further reporting of its own.
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