Exiled Eritrean Journalist Calls For Press Freedom in His Country

Despite having a fraction of its population, Eritrea has almost as many reporters in prison as China, a fact that highlighted an event at the National Press Club on April 27.

Milkias M. Yohannes, an exiled Eritrean journalist living in Maryland, became the first Eritrean reporter ever arrested for doing his job.

“I was arrested right after I interviewed the U.S. ambassador to Eritrea," Yohannes said. "I was accused of being a CIA spy. From my colleagues who were there with me, one is in jail. We don’t know if the other is still alive."

Yohannes spoke at the second edition of ”Truth Teller,” a new series of talks featuring reporters in exile taking the stand on the dangers they faced in their home countries. The sessions are cosponsored by the Club and Reporters Without Borders.

“Defending press freedom is one of the strongest commitments of the National Press Club,” said Evan Sweetman, chairman of the Young Members Commitee.

Participants in the April 27 event said that Eritrea for the past four years has been the continent’s biggest prison for the press. Eritrea, which became independent in 1993, is ranked last in the latest annual World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders.

A lawyer by trade, Yohannes is the founder of Kestedebena, one of the Eritrea's largest independent newspapers until it was shut down during the 2001 government crackdown.

After his arrest and much publicised trial, Yohannes moved to the United States, where he became a founding member of the Association of Eritrean Journalists in exile (AEJE) and a correspondent for Reporters Without Borders. He continues to freelance and contribute to the Eritrean blogosphere as well as lecture extensively on human rights and independent media in his home country.

“Websites are the main information source on Eritrea. They are all owned by the diaspora all over the world”, Yohannes said.

The Eritrean government claims detained journalists are traitors, Ethiopian spies or deserters, according to Clothilde Le Coz, Washington director for Reporters Without Borders.

She said that it is not known whether the reporters being held are still alive. “As far as we know, 25 reporters are in jail for doing their job,” she said.

In September 2001, the Eritrean government ordered all of the country privately owned publications to be closed down.

“In the days that followed, police arrested above 15 or so journalists. Since then the public media in Eritrea do nothing but relay the regime’s belligerent and ultra-nationalist discourse,” Le Coz said.

Commenting the pictures of his imprisonned colleagues and on the situation of media freedom in Eritrea, Yohannes said, “Being a reporter is the riskiest job you can take in my country. Even if you are not from the opposition movement. So far, seven of my colleagues died in prison, including my former assistant."

Journalists are not the only victims of the regime, Yohannes said. "Former ministers, activists and human right defenders are also in custody in one of the 314 detention centers and prison in Eritrea and people are going into exile everyday," he said. "The human tragedy in Eritrea is a disaster. More than 50 journalists and media professionnals are currently in exile."

Yohannes also raised the case of the Swedish-Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaac, who has spent more than nine years in jail so far without a trial and without any visits from his family or lawyers.

Dawit was arrested in Asmara on 23 September 2001 for defending the freedom of speech of the Eritrean people in the independent newspaper Setit, which he cofounded in 1997. Eritrean authorities claim that Dawit is an Eritrean citizen only - not a Swedish citizen - and that his case is an internal affair.

As a ray of hope, Le Coz said, is the creation of the Paris-based Radio Erena (“Our Eritrea” in Tigrinya language). Broadcast by satellite to Eritreans in Eritrea and on the Internet to the Eritrean diaspora, the station serves as an independant source for the country. Supported by Reporters Without Borders, Radio Erena has been opertaing for 10 months.

See the complete list of Eritrean imprisonned journalists : http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-barometer-journalists-imprisoned.html?annee=2010

Listen to Radio Erena : http://radio-erena.com/