May 14, 2007
The Honorable Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul
Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development
C/o German Embassy to the United States
4645 Reservoir Road, NW, Washington DC 20007-1998
Via facsimile: (202) 298-4249
Dear Minister Wieczorek-Zeul:
The Committee to Protect Journalists notes that the German
government has decided to fund the training of journalists working
for Eritrea’s state-controlled media while the nation’s independent
press remains shut down and more than a dozen publishers and editors
continue to be held incommunicado, many since September 2001.
We welcome Germany’s interest in media development in Eritrea.
However, we are deeply troubled by the Eritrean government’s ongoing
repression of independent media. We hope that Germany will use its
diplomatic influence to ensure that the Eritrean authorities account
for the jailed journalists, including Swedish citizen and Eritrean
national Dawit Isaac, co-owner of the defunct private weekly
Setit. We are especially concerned because reliable reports
indicate that some of these journalists, including Setit’s
award-winning editor Fesshaye Yohannes, may have died in prison.
On April 16, the Deutsche-Welle Akademie (DW-Akademie), an agency
whose international journalism training program is funded by your
ministry, launched a journalism course to train staff of the
Eritrean Information Ministry, according to the state Tigrina-language
daily Haddas Eritrea. The training is part of a three-year
cooperation agreement signed in December 2006 between DW-Akademie
and the Eritrean Information Ministry, according to Haddas
Eritrea.
While we are convinced that the DW-Akademie trainees are receiving
world-class journalism training, we fear that they will not be able
to faithfully exercise their profession since the Eritrean
government effectively banned independent journalism in September
2001, and continues to subject the remaining state-controlled
journalists to arbitrary imprisonment and threats of reprisals
against their families.
Eritrea remains the only nation in sub-Saharan Africa without any
independent media outlet. One week after September 11, 2001, the
government of President Isaias Afewerki closed all privately owned
media and arrested 10 independent journalists, according to CPJ
research. Authorities accused the journalists of various alleged
national security violations, but they have failed to bring
identifiable charges in any known court.
The crackdown came shortly after the private press had covered a
split in the ruling party and provided a forum for debate on
Afewerki’s autocratic rule. Setit published on September 9,
2001, a letter addressed to the government stating that “people can
tolerate hunger and other problems for a long time, but they can’t
tolerate the absence of good administration and justice.” The
crackdown was part of a government drive to eliminate political
dissent ahead of elections, scheduled for December 2001 but canceled
without explanation by the government.
The jailed journalists initially had limited access to the outside
world as they were first held at a police station in the capital,
Asmara, where they began a hunger strike on March 31, 2002. In a
message smuggled from their jail, the journalists said they would
refuse food until they were released or charged and given due
process of law. But the government quickly transferred the
journalists to secret locations.
Holding the journalists incommunicado, the government—with one
exception explained below—has refused to divulge their whereabouts,
their health, or even whether they are still alive. Officials at the
Eritrean embassy in Washington and at the Information Ministry in
Asmara have consistently failed to respond to CPJ’s inquiries
seeking information. During a press conference in Brussels on May 4,
the day after World Press Freedom Day, in response to a question
about freedom of the press in Eritrea, Afewerki asked “what freedoms
those living in South African shantytowns enjoyed?” according to
Agence France-Presse. In response to another question about the fate
of Isaac, Afewerki asked “why Sweden was so interested in handing
out passports to Eritreans,” according to AFP. Isaac was released
for a medical checkup on November 19, 2005, and allowed to phone his
family and a friend in Sweden. Despite hopes that he would be freed,
Isaac was returned to jail two days later with no explanation,
according to CPJ sources.
In February 2007, in response to news reports that Yohannes had died
in prison, presidential spokesman Yemane Gebremeskel was quoted by
Voice of America as saying: “In the first place, I don’t know the
person you’re talking about.” Yohannes is said to have died in
detention, and his death was first reported in January 2006,
according to CPJ sources. His family was not formally notified, and
they were not able to recover his body for a proper burial.
Other journalists who have been held either without charge or trial
or who remain in indefinite state custody as of today are editor
Said Abdelkader of Admas, assistant editor Fitzum Wedi Ade,
and editor-in-chief Amanuel Asrat of Zemen; journalist Saleh
Aljezeeri of Eritrean State Radio, editor-in-chief Yusuf Mohamed Ali
of Tsigenay; reporter Selamyinghes Beyene of Meqaleh;
columnist Temesken Ghebreyesus of Keste Debena;
editor-in-chief Mattewos Habteab and assistant editor Dawit
Habtemichael of Meqaleh; assistant editor Medhanie Haile of
Keste Debena; founder and manager Zemenfes Haile and reporter
Ghebrehiwet Keleta of Tsigenay; Hamid Mohammed Said of the
Eritrean State Television; and freelance photographer and former
director of the Eritrean State Television Seyoum Tsehaye, according
to CPJ research. Credible but unconfirmed reports in
September 2006 said that Abdelkader, Ali and Haile had died in
prison.
CPJ research shows that Eritrea was the world’s third leading jailer
of journalists in 2006; those in custody included at least eight
state media journalists who were detained for several weeks in late
2006. The government did not explain the 2006 crackdown, but sources
said it was designed to intimidate state media workers after several
colleagues had fled the country.
The government’s monopoly on domestic media, the fear of reprisal
among prisoners’ families, and tight restrictions on the movement of
all foreigners led CPJ in 2006 to name Eritrea as one of the 10 most
censored countries in the world.
With freedom of thought and expression brutally suppressed in
Eritrea, we are deeply concerned that the local journalists the
German government is funding to train will not be able to exercise
their profession within international ethical standards. We
therefore call on you to use all your diplomatic influence to obtain
guarantees from the Eritrean authorities that the journalists will
be able to work freely and without fear of reprisal. We also call on
you to insist that the Eritrean government lift its ban on the
private press, that it fully account for those journalists who have
died in prison, and that it to immediately release all journalists
who have been jailed without charge or trial simply for exercising
their right to free expression.
We thank you for your attention, and we look forward to your
response.
Sincerely,
Joel Simon
Executive Director
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