Ethiopia becomes fifth worst jailer of journalists

ESAT News (December 13, 2016)

The Committee to Protect Journalists said Ethiopia has become the fifth worst jailer of journalists in the world.  

CPJ in its end of the year report said a record number of journalists are in jail in 2016.

“Turkey’s unprecedented crackdown on media brought the total number of jailed journalists worldwide to the highest number since the Committee to Protect Journalists began taking an annual census in 1990,” the report said.

As of December 1, 2016, there were 259 journalists in jail around the world.

CPJ said China, which was the world’s worst jailer of journalists in 2014 and 2015, dropped to the second spot with 38 journalists in jail.

Egypt, Eritrea, and Ethiopia are third, fourth and fifth worst jailers of journalists, respectively. Combined, the top five countries on CPJ’s census were responsible for jailing more than two-thirds of all journalists in prison worldwide.

A dozen journalists, some of them award winning, remain in jail in Ethiopia with the whereabout of Temesgen Desalegn, serving a three year sentence not known for the last one week.