Press conference to present Ethiopian journalist released from seven-year prison sentence, June 20

Then National Press Club Journalism Institute and the Club's Press Freedom Committee will host a press conference for Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega on Wednesday, June 20, at 6.30 p.m. in the Club's Lisagor Room. This is a free event however RSVPs are required and can be reserved here.

Nega was released from prison earlier this year after a seven-year incarceration for his writing about the Ethiopian government's anti-democratic and oppressive practices. Before and during his time in prison, he remained an important press freedom figure for Ethiopian and international journalists and democracy activists around the world.

Securing his freedom became a rallying point for a number of international freedom of expression groups including the National Press Club and the PEN American Center, which in 2012 awarded him its top prize, the Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award.

Nega has been imprisoned more than half a dozen times over the course of his journalism career. His wife, former newspaper publisher Serkalem Fasil, gave birth to a boy in 2006 while she and her husband were imprisoned by the government.