RED LINED FOR MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY The UN Human rights proclamation was declared and accepted by most countries some 65 years ago but what i am going to tell you my experience that the declaration is red lined through out my life under different regimes till today this minute. It is stated in the declaration article 19 that Every one has the right to freedom of opinion and expression this right includes freedom to hold opinion without inference and to seek,recieve and implant information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. During my teenages I lived in a country where only three daily and one weekly news papers were published. Besides this there were also some others that belong to the Police and the Armed forces. There were also three monthly magazines that have almost the same content. The press were seconded by government owned radio station three times a day from 7-9 AM,12 -2 PM and evening program from 7-12 PM and television broadcast between 7-12 in the night. In their programs Amharic, Oromiffa, Tigrigna and Somali were broadcasted. Most of the contents in all the above media focus on what is done by the Imperial regime and its chronies but were short of about the problems in the rural areas,i.e. the Feudal production relation,the eviction of tenants by their landlords or the poor infrastructure of the country or some rebelling groups fighting against the regime or some movements within the military for government change or teachers association demands for a subsector review or the situations raised by students in high school and universities about democratization of the country as well abolishing of the absolute Monarchy to other system of Governemnt. During these days anyone reads,hears or sees the openning sentence starts with words His Imperial ....visited,did,sent messages etc.. and this information is seconded by the photo of the Emperor. If some journalist made mistakes in proof reading or script error he /she is reprimand for doing so or could loose her/his place and the worst could be sent to remote areas of the country and would be confined to that specified area. Sometimes an accident is orchestrated on Journalists, the result being described mysterious death as a riddle. During this time the red lining of the freedom of opinion is done systematically since the regime do not want to be harassed by pear governments of the Western World. The regime was overthrown when I was 17 and my expectation was that the freedom of expression and opinion would be better and free to forward ones idea. As to my expectation there a window of opprtunity for a short time and different opinions on different news papers and magazines with different opinions entertained. Moreover the government owned news papers and media accept all types that are sent to them and print them or broadcast them. As the proverb a new broom cleans every corner. But this window of opportunity did not last long and was replaced with laws that include not prohibiting broadcasting, writing and publishing freely but also thinking was incorporated. Criticizing the regime was thought as reactionary and the press were confined to propogate only socialism and its achievemnt even if people were dying with hunger and famine. The same were also about the headlines in all the media saying “ the chairman of the workers party of Ethiopia visited, discussed, recieved so and so… with a photo of the Chairman.“ The characterstics for both regimes about curving opinions could be justified with the 1973/4 and the 1984/5 famine that were disclosed by foreign journalists and foreign media in the meantime the Emperor was celebrating his 80th birthday buying birthday cakes from France and inviting all African leaders while the later were celebrating its 10 anniversary of the socialist revolution and the inaugration of the Workers Party of Ethiopia importing whiskey estimated to cost more than a million dollar respectively. Moreover the so called comrades in the formation of a socialist state and a communist state where human beings are threated as in equal terms but the reality being as George Orwels Animal Farm. Every dictatorial regimes have always an end point one way or the other but the end of one regime is the beginning of the other. I was 33 when a group of rebels overthrown the military junta socialist regime fighting for 17 years with the motto first to emancipate only one region, Tigrai, and moved to emancipate the whole country, Ethiopia. The TPLF(Tigrai peoples Liberation Front) aimed to builld greater Tigrai by having their own Tigrian Republic. They were also against the Military regime as well the people were fade up of fiasco Socialism., everybody accepted and brace them but it did not lasted long before the tiger showed its skins. Since the inception as well the development of the liberation front was rooted in Albanian socialism but were baptized as liberal democrates in the eleventh hour in a negotiation table in the heart of London with the help of the Americans and Brits. The beginning the free press as well the role of the government press was left open and people tried to write on fundamentals to build democracy and the role of the press in building a country. In addition to this the press was seen as a contributor in the building of democracy. There were more than one hundred fifty news papers and magazines during the beginning free to write on different topics from democratization to petty issues in the country. But it was a sudden shock to see the escalation of printing costs and development of sensorship put to deter what they write and what they print but one can also say it was relatively relcutant till the third national election in 2005. It is the reality in Africa as well in Ethiopia that the ruling party is the sole owner of the government media and that facilitate the dissmination of party information very easily without additonal costs. But this scenario changes when the opposition parties requested some air time to discuss their ideas about the 2005 election for Regional as well Federal government. The ruling party was not aware that the people were fade up of their Ethnic Politics and allowed the oppositions to participate on election campaign through the government media. The fruitful discussions what could be future policies in different sectors by the different actors wooed the public easily. It was not also the government media but also the private media was strong enough to show what is good and failure successful the past years and ill concepts in building democracy. What was not anticipated by the ruling party was that the hard push of the oppositions and their strength to show the weaknesses of the incumbent. The people has envisioned who will do better in securing human rights as well who tries to adhere to democratic principles. This open up discussion in the media played a role to unsit incumbent just losing 137 places from 138 places in the Regional Council in the Caiptal city and lost in most places their sit for new faces that were not thought to confront them. In most well observed elections places by the International community the incumbent lost to new faces all over the country but won on places where they were able either to rig votes or in their stronghold part, Tigrai. Since the 2005 election result day the incumbent started to design either to close all private media or to put the owners and editors behind the bar. In due time most of the opposition party members who won in election and the media that were writting during the election time about some vote rigging were labeled as criminals such as genocide,treason to overtnrow the government using force and to disturbe the intergrity of the country and were put for 21 months in custody and some were freed on pardon due to negotiation and international pressure. Ethiopia being a country that ratified all UN coventions have now closed almost all the medias that are not government friendly or that do not wed and bed with the blessing of the government. Moreover what is interesting for a country with good reputation of signing UN conventions and that depends mostly from donation(aid) that came through NGOs and civil societies has put a new law that states any civil society should not be involved in good governance,human rights and political issues as well. By adding a clause, if a domestic civil society or NGO is financed more than 10 percent is named a foreign NGO and also cannot involve in advocating good governance as well any activity in the democratization process in the country. To substantiate the above situations one can refer to how many journalists are put behind the bar due to their ideas or what they have wrote just critizing the unlawfull deeds by authorities or those who take office to serve the people. Here one can see what happened to a group of blogger who wrote about maladmininstration and corruption. More over one also can add journalists like Eskinder Nega, Wubshet Taye and Reeyot Alemu One can aslo see the statistics that fled the country and living in different countries to avoid extra judicial kiling,harrasment and unlawful imprisonment. More than 159 journalists have fled from the country fearing repression. Most of them have worked either in a private as well in the government medias and one can also remember the one who fled from Copenhagen conference (COP15) who accompanied the late Prime Minister. The journalists in Ethiopia are not only indited with the press law but also the criminal code, the anti -terrorist law make it a three way attack to put panick in them not to describe the fallacies of the ruling party. 65 years after the UN declaration and the practice of article 19 still the Ethiopian government is jammng radios broadcasted from abroad,blocking internet sites to be read in the country as well investing foreign exchange to jam while about 7.5 million depend on food aid from donors every year sometimes due to unfavorable weather conditions as well inappropariate agricultural policies policies put in practice. The basic human right issue to express ideas in any country is a provision one can not give it or take it but the reality in my life for the last half century, the media or the press is red lines by all the governments existed as well existing but it is a lip sevice when asked about the press „“they say there is no human right abuses, no political prisoners and no journalists behind the bar unless those that have committed crime. Release all political Prisoners and Journalists they are prisoners
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 15:25:10 +0000
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