May 3/2005

As the world observes International Free Press day, it is important to signal that the EPRDF regime in Ethiopia ahs changed tact while keeping its policy of repressing the free press intact. As before, the prisons are not full of journalists but the relentless repression against the free press and independent journalists is still official politics.

After attempting to pass a more severe Press Law and facing local and international resistance and approbation, the regime of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi resorted to a subterfuge and adopted all the restrictive articles as parts of a Penal Code amendment package. In other words, the repressive laws against the free press are now in place and all indications are that many journalists will end up behind bars on one or another trumped up charge under the Penal Code. The EPRDF State owns and controls most of the mass media, it runs FM and short wave radio stations (a right still denied to private citizens while allowed to its own surrogates), it owns major printing and publishing houses (the wife of Meles himself presides over the major media and publishing firm called Mega Net Corporation), etc.. Control over the price of paper, meaning the right of the regime to hike it at will, has sent many newspapers into bankruptcy (an effective way of shutting up independent newspapers). Scores of journalists have fled to foreign lands in the last few months alone and the trend is liable to continue.

SOCEPP denounces the repressive measures against journalists and the free press in Ethiopia and calls upon the international public opinion to remain vigilant and see through the manoeuvres of the Meles Zenawi regime, which still stands against the freedom of the press.