Protest of Program Content on the recent interview of President Isaias Afeworki of Eritrea by Mr. Tewolde Weldegebriel

Eritrean Global Solidarity
Office of Executive
1929 Ellis Avenue
Bronx NY 10472

Network of Eritrean Civil Societies
in Europe (NECS-Europe)
P.O.Box 401 - 1214
Geneva – Switzerland

Mr. Freed Cooper
Chief of Horn of Africa Service
Voice of America
330 Independence, SW
Washington DC 20237

Subject: Protest of Program Content on the recent interview of President Isaias Afeworki of Eritrea by Mr. Tewolde Weldegebriel  

Dear Mr. Cooper,
We are writing this letter to bring to your attention what we consider is a gross deficiency exhibited by one of your reporters on the Tigrigna program in his recent interview of President of Eritrea. Mr. Tewelde Weldegebriel approach was in no way or shape compatible with the expressed VOA mission:

“To promote freedom and democracy and to enhance understanding through multimedia communication of accurate, objective, and balanced news, information, and other programming about America and the world to audiences overseas.”

We members of the Eritrean Global Society (EGS) and Network of Eritrean Civil Societies in Europe (NECS) deeply feel that the expressed mission of VOA” to promote freedom and democracy” was scuttled and replaced with “extending a tacit political and psychological comfort” to one of Africa’s most notorious authoritarians.

We are sure you are familiar with the consecutive yearly Human Rights report by the State Department. To underscore our genuine concern and complaint we are quoting the latest the US State Department 2010 Human Right report on Eritrea states:

“Human rights abuses included abridgement of citizens' right to change their government through a democratic process; unlawful killings by security forces; torture and beating of prisoners, sometimes resulting in death; abuse and torture of national service evaders; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention, including of national service evaders and their family members; executive interference in the judiciary and the use of a special court system to limit due process; and infringement of Privacy rights. National service obligations are effectively open-ended although the government does not acknowledge this circumstance. There is no due process and persons remain in jail for years. The government severely restricted freedoms of speech, press, assembly, association and religion”.

When Mr.Weldegebriel is seating, face to face, with the very person who is in charge of the massive abuses documented above by the US State Department report, we strongly feel, he should have done everything professionally possible to minimize the opportunity for the authoritarian president to monopolize the microphone and dump his TV- ERI style anti-democrat rhetoric without being challenged and raise follow up questions to make the interview relevant and on target.

When the Eritrean president states there is “there is no democracy in America” while using VOA to condemn democracy in general Mr. Weldegiorgis failed either to redirect president Isaias to the question he raised  “ why there has not been election in Eritrea in the last 20 years” or challenge his insistence that America has no democracy. He was given a free reign to spread his authoritarian poison and in a slick manner evade a critical question. Had this happened on TV-ERI we would have understood as a normal culture of an authoritarian media but not on VOA.  

The fact that the president stated “I am not working under a contract or no body is paying me salary” as his instinctive –second nature-  answers to the fundamental issue of why there has not be an election in Eritrea in the last 20 years Mr. Weldegebriel did not even challenge this incredulous and arrogant statement. If not by intent by effect Mr. Tewolde Woldegebriel has given Africa’s worst human rights abuser a free ride. This is an across- the- board feeling shared by all members of the Eritrea Civic Organizations listed in this letter. 

Most importantly the President of Eritrea held an exclusive - for government supporters only- meeting at the Manhattan Center – Hammerstein Ballroom, New York after 10 years of absence from USA. Mr. Tewelde did not ask him as to why the meeting was arranged in a way to avoid the open venting of all unavoidable critical national issues? Why was the meeting not open to all Eritreans and Eritrean Americans especially to the ones who are living right in New York and the neighboring states?

Given the history of long and illustrious service by VOA this might be taken as glitch but to us who are organized to advance the principles of democracy, rules of law, constitutional governance, free press and religious freedom in Eritrea this glaring glitch has hit home we do not want a similar failure to permeate the highly respected VOA listeners ear and mind in Eritrea and Diaspora, thus the need for our official on the record complaint.         


Eritrean Global Solidarity & Network of Eritrean Civil Societies in Europe (NECS-Europe) Member organizations
1. CDRiE: Citizens for              Democratic Rights in Eritrea
2. EAPF- Greater NY: Eritrean
American Public Forum of
Greater New York.
3. Eritrean-American Public
Forum of Dallas and Fort-Worth.
4. Eritrean Community for        Human Rights and Refugee Protection
5. EDPF: Eritrean Democratic
Public Forum-Boston.
6. EPF- Minnesota: Eritrean Public     Forum –Minnesota
7. EYGM: Eritrean Youth Global
Movement.
8. Eritrean Global Solidarity for
Justice and Human Rights-
Atlanta
9. Eritrean Human Rights Group       Toronto (Qualna).
10. American Forum for           Democracy in Eritrea (Chicago)
11. Civic Association of Eritreans
in Seattle.
12. CUHRE-SD: Citizens United    for HumanRights in Eritrea- San        Diego
13. Delina Foundation
14. Eritrean Civic - Las Vegas
15. All Eritrean Association for
Cultural Unity – Sweden
16. Eritrean Advocacy for Human Rights – Germany
17. Eritreans for Justice and     Democracy – Benelux
18. Eritreans for Peace and     Democracy– Switzerland
19. Eritreans for Peace – Germany 20. Popular Movement for    Democracy in
Eritrea – Sweden
21. Eritrean Movement for Unity    –    Norway
22. Mekaleh Eritrea – Germany 23. Snit Selam – Germany

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