Ethiopia Urged to Protect Press Freedom and Release Journalist

Amir Aman Kiyaro

Ethiopia has been called upon to respect its international commitments to freedom of expression and the press by releasing all its journalists who have been imprisoned.

Two lawmakers in the U.S. Congress — Reps. Adam Schiff of California and Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania — have joined calls for the immediate release of journalist Amir Aman Kiyaro, who has been held without charge for the past four months. On Tuesday, Kiyaro's continued detention is scheduled for review in court, during which the state must formally charge him or release him, according to the judge hearing the case.

Since Ethiopia has ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is a member of the African Union, it is obligated to release Kiyaro and other journalists, according to Schiff and Scanlon. Kiyaro, a 30-year-old video journalist with The Associated Press, was detained Nov 28 in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, under Ethiopia's state of emergency related to the war. In February, the government lifted the state of emergency citing changing conditions in the deadly conflict between Ethiopian forces and those from the northern Tigray region. Last week, the Ethiopian government announced a humanitarian truce in the war-ravaged Tigray region. 

Kiyaro is accused in Ethiopian state media of "serving the purposes" of a terrorist group by interviewing its officials, according to federal police. Thomas Engida, a local journalist, was arrested at the same time and faces similar charges. According to inspector Tesfaye Olani of the Federal Police, the journalists violated the law of emergency and Ethiopia's anti-terrorism law, and these violations could result in sentences ranging from seven to fifteen years in prison. However, the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations, when interpreting the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Ethiopia has ratified, specifically states that a journalist should not be imprisoned for interviewing a member of a terrorist group.

“The media plays a crucial role in informing the public about acts of terrorism and its capacity to operate should not be unduly restricted,” says the committee’s decision further explaining the reach of the covenant's relevant section in paragraph 46 on press freedom. “Journalists should not be penalized for carrying out their legitimate activities,” it states.In the wake of Kiyaro's imprisonment and that of other Ethiopian journalists, there has been a change in the Ethiopian government's attitude toward the media.

During his tenure as president, Abiy Ahmed initiated sweeping political reforms, including the release of several journalists from prison. For a brief period, no journalist in Ethiopia was in prison. However, media advocacy groups that once praised those reforms have now spoken out against the dramatic backsliding that followed, particularly after Ethiopia's war began in November 2020.