US embassy cable - 09ADDISABABA2535

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ADDIS ABABA 002535 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR R, AF/PDPA, AND AF/E 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/23/2019 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, KDEM, KPAO, ET 
SUBJECT: INCREASED INTIMIDATION OF THE PRIVATE PRESS 
 
REF: A. ADDIS 2208 
     B. ADDIS 1060 
 
Classified By: Information Officer Michael Gonzales for reasons 1.4 (B) 
 and (D). 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
1. (C) In recent months, the Ethiopian Government (GoE) has 
significantly ramped up intimidation  of the foreign and 
private press.  In early October, the State Prosecutor 
requested the file of Washington Post reporter Kassahun Addis 
from the Government Communications Affairs Office (GCAO), 
prompting Kassahun to flee Ethiopia for Kenya.  Recently, the 
state-owned Addis Zemen Amharic language newspaper has 
targeted the opposition-leaning  Amharic weekly Addis Neger. 
An Addis Zemen "opinion" article on October 17 explicitly 
labeled Addis Neger as "anti-democracy, nihilistic, and 
anti-establishment," and specifically named Editor-in-Chief 
Tamerat Negera as a chief driver of this slant.  The article 
accused the paper of supporting opposition groups and equated 
Addis Neger with Addis Zena -- a private newspaper which the 
GoE forcibly closed in 2005.  Tamerat Negera informed 
Information Officer on October 21 that he will flee to South 
Africa on November 12 if he is not arrested before, and that 
within two months Addis Neger will shut down.  And on October 
24, an op-ed in the state-owned English language paper 
Ethiopian Herald severely criticized, Amare Aregawi, the 
general manager of The Reporter, a privately-owned weekly 
published in both English and Amharic, for having "an 
avaricious appetite for milking riches from the misuse of the 
free press."  Foreign and local journalists in Ethiopia cite 
these and other examples (see background below) as part of a 
concerted and systematic effort by the GoE to silence 
criticism as the country sinks further into a drought-induced 
humanitarian crisis and approaches national elections next 
Spring.  End Summary. 
 
BACKGROUND 
---------- 
 
2. (SBU) Shortly after the GoE protested to then-Ambassador 
Yamamoto regarding a VOA Amharic Service broadcast by 
Genocide Watch head Greg Stanton (Ref. B), the Ethiopian 
Revenue and Customs Authority (ERCA) detained VOA stringer 
Meleskachew Amaha on May 27 for six weeks allegedly for 
illegally attempting to sell broadcasting equipment that had 
been brought into Ethiopia duty free.  Despite the fact that 
ERCA is not a law enforcement entity, the Authority held 
Meleskachew for over six weeks in June in their Old Airport 
neighborhood office (not a formal detention facility) while 
they investigated his case.  It was only after Ambassador 
Yamamoto visited Meleskachew at the ERCA office that the 
Ethiopian High Court ordered his release and dropped all 
charges against him for lack of evidence to substantiate the 
charges.  Still, international and local journalists alike 
noted to Information Officer that the action had had a 
chilling effect on their profession and many admitted 
increasing self-censorship to avoid drawing the GoE's 
attention. 
 
3. (SBU) As detailed in Ref. A, in late-August the 
State-owned and controlled Addis Zemen newspaper -- viewed by 
journalists and the international community as an indicator 
of the pulse of the ruling party and GoE -- ran two 
pseudonymous "opinion" pieces which falsely accused USAID of 
attempting to intervene in Ethiopia's domestic political 
affairs by financing and influencing the press.  In an 
unrelated meeting, ruling party central committee member 
Tekleowini Assefa noted to USAID/Ethiopia Mission Director 
Tom Staal that he was confident someone very senior within 
the GoE wrote the Addis Zemen articles condemning USAID's 
activities.  While Addis Zemen ceased running these direct 
attacks on USAID after Embassy Officers raised our objection 
with Minister for Government Communications Bereket Simon on 
September 4, the newspaper and the ruling party-controlled 
Aiga Forum webpage have continued to refer to the alleged 
incident and implied that the private press is a tool of 
foreign powers.  Local journalists reported practicing 
self-censorship and keeping a low, depoliticized profile 
while the GoE remained on this track. 
 
 
ADDIS ABAB 00002535  002 OF 003 
 
 
MOST RECENT INCIDENTS OF PRESS INTIMIDATION 
------------------------------------------- 
 
4. (C) In discussions with Information Officer on September 
24 and 28, Washington Post reporter and Time Magazine 
correspondent Kassahun Addis said he had received information 
from an Ethiopian Government Communications Affairs Office 
contact reporting that the Ethiopian State Prosecutor had 
requested Kassahun's file from the GCAO.  After consultation 
with several local journalist colleagues, Kassahun decided to 
flee to Kenya rather than be subjected to what he believed to 
be an imminent attempt to arrest and detain him.  Kassahun 
left Ethiopia on September 29. 
 
5. (C) In conversations with Information Officer, Kassahun 
noted that a few years ago he had filed a story without 
having journalist credentials, and he speculated that that 
could be the basis for a GoE arrest attempt.  Kassahun 
further explained that in addition to working for the 
Washington Post and Time magazine, he has periodically 
assisted Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International teams 
during their visits to Ethiopia.  Another journalist noted 
that last year Kassahun helped a Time magazine team doing a 
story on drought and malnutrition.  At that time, when 
Kassahun obtained the credentials for the visiting Time team, 
the GCAO advised him to take the team to several very 
specific locations.  Instead, Kassahun took the team to 
places where he knew the drought and its impact to be worse. 
That journalist source informed Information Officer that the 
GoE does not often explicitly bar journalists from areas, but 
in telling journalists where they should go, the GoE is 
effectively telling them where not to go.  The source reports 
that all journalists in Ethiopia understand this system; by 
flouting it, Kassahun crossed the line with the GoE. 
 
6. (C) In discussions with Information Officer, a variety of 
Ethiopian and foreign journalists have independently 
speculated that the GoE aims to limit international press 
coverage of Ethiopia, especially as 2010 elections approach. 
All have suggested that since it is relatively more difficult 
to bar foreign journalists from reporting, the alleged 
targeting of Kassahun may reflect the beginning of a new 
trend by the GoE to target the Ethiopian staff, 
correspondents, and facilitators of international journalists 
and media outlets. 
 
7. (C) Throughout early October, Addis Zemen has published a 
series of pseudonymous "opinion" pieces that have shifted 
from the broad targeting of the private media to a much more 
focused attack on what has emerged as the most influential 
Amharic language newspaper publishing political analysis, 
Addis Neger.  On October 17, these attacks reached a 
crescendo in an Addis Zemen commentary accusing Addis Neger 
of being "anti-democracy, nihilistic, and 
anti-establishment."  The piece explicitly accused Addis 
Neger and its Editor-in-Chief Tamerat Negera of "destroying 
the key values of the democratic system itself" and of 
"advocating for Ginbot Seven," the Diaspora political 
movement founded by former Mayor-elect of Addis Ababa which 
has called for struggle by any means.  The commentary 
specifically equated Addis Neger with the former newspaper 
Addis Zena.  Addis Zena was forcibly closed by the GoE, and 
its editorial board was arrested and charged with capital 
offenses in the 2005 post-election political turmoil.  On 
October 19, in a meeting with a British Embassy press 
specialist, State Minister for Government Communications 
Shimelis Kamal argued that "Addis Neger should be 
eliminated."  Later that day, a contact within GCAO told the 
Addis Ababa-based Daily Nation reporter Argaw Ashene that the 
GCAO had drawn up a list of the six top Addis Neger 
officials, including Tamerat, who they plan to target in 
order to silence the newspaper's analysis. 
 
8. (C) On October 21, Tamerat Negera informed Information 
Officer that these explicit threats against him have prompted 
him to flee Ethiopia.  The Addis Zemen commentary represents 
the first time a 
state-run entity has explicitly targeted an individual from a 
private media house since the 2005 post-election turmoil. 
Tamerat was already planning on participating in a World 
Bank-organized workshop in South Africa beginning November 
12.  Over the next two weeks, Tamerat reported that he will 
keep a low profile, put his affairs in order, and restrict 
 
ADDIS ABAB 00002535  003 OF 003 
 
 
his weekly column to events in Kenya.  He reported that he 
will not return from South Africa.  Over the next two months, 
the other members of the Addis Neger editorial board and 
senior officers will also get their affairs in order. 
Tamerat informed Information Officer that the editorial board 
has taken the decision to stop publishing Addis Neger within 
the next two months.  Once all senior officers have arranged 
for somewhere safe from which to operate in the region (but 
outside of Ethiopia), the editorial board will issue a public 
statement announcing its decision and motives. 
 
9.  (C) On October 24, the state-owned English newspaper, the 
Ethiopian Herald published an opinion article severely 
criticizing the General Manager of The Reporter, a generally 
pro-government, privately-owned weekly that is published in 
both English and Amharic.  The op-ed draws attention to the 
logo in the corner of both the Amharic and English editions 
which depicts a woman being hung by a bayonette-wielding 
executioner above the caption "Rescue the Free Press from the 
Hangman!"  The author of the op-ed asks, " What are readers 
of The Reporter to make of this discrepancy between what they 
know for a fact and the demand placed on them to rescue the 
free press from an imaginary hangman.  Surely if the private 
press were in its death-bed throes, the Reporter would have 
folded."  The op-ed cites Amare as having disdain for those 
who "won the day" in the 2000 Ethiopian People's 
Revolutionary Democratic Front  internal conflict (Amare is a 
former member of the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front 
Central Committee) and an "avaricious appetite for milking 
riches through the misuses of the free press."  Calling Amare 
a "small-minded dwarf" who takes "cheap shots" at Meles 
Zenawi and Minister for Government Communications Bereket 
Simon, the op-ed author claims it is these very leaders 
"which the Reporter constantly maligns, who resolutely 
defended freedom of the press when its constitutional 
inviolability was on the line." Another Reporter victim is 
said to be Midroc Ethiopia and its owner, Sheik Mohamed 
Al-Amoudi, whom the article lauds as Ethiopia's largest 
employer and one of its biggest investors.  The article 
particularly deplores Amare for implicating a close confidant 
of Al-Amoudi in a near-fatal assault of Amare that occurred 
in October 2008.  Many contacts have noted that controversial 
opinion articles such as those that have appeared in the 
State-owned Addis Zemen and Ethiopian Herald papers recently 
could not have been published without high-level GOE 
sanction, and have speculated that these articles may have 
even been authored by high-level GOE officials. 
 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
10. (C) Given the state-owned papers' roles as the voice of 
internal sentiment from within the ruling party and GoE -- as 
well as the government's history of targeting private media 
around elections -- the recent series of public condemnations 
and warnings to journalists appears to substantiate 
journalists' perceptions that the GoE has embarked on a 
systematic effort to silence critics.  While the Kassahun 
Addis and Addis Neger cases reflect pre-emptive actions by 
journalists themselves to avoid persecution, the effect on 
Ethiopia's political discourse and media practitioners 
remains one of a de facto 
silencing.  The closure of Addis Neger will be a loss to 
public political discourse and analytical journalism in 
Ethiopia.  The apparent stepped-up pace of media harrassment 
is a key factor in limiting the already restricted political 
space in Ethiopia and relevent to discussions of democracy 
planned for them Nov 5 bilateral talks.  End Comment. 
MEECE