A fellow blogger texts me this story about a detained journo in Ethiopia. It’s on a weekend so my internet access is restricted to a 10 mb subscription, a 240 by 320 pixels screen and a booster that can’t provide 3g connection. So in view of these circumstances, I shelve my curiosity and wait for better times.
From Monday I try to find out all I can about this blogger. Today I decide much has been written and much has been said; it’s time to add my voice to the glorious chant for the freedom Eskinder Nega.
When someone or a group of people detain a man and his pregnant wife on fabricated charges because they said no to a fraudulent election; that is where I draw my line. When a government is hell bent to destroy an individual because it can’t stand a little opposition; that is where it goes too far. When the same man is afterwards sentenced to 18 years in jail for ‘incitement’ and ‘planning to verthrow the government’ i ask; what tha …?
Great people have suffered for worthy courses. A great man in a movie once said ‘if you can’t die for what you believe in, then you are just as good as dead already’. The Ethiopian government is creating a legend out of Mr. Neja, they just don’t see it yet. At the end of the day I might never learn the name of the minister who ordered the arrest, I might never remember the name of the very paranoid president, I will definitely never know the name of the prison warden who is keeping him locked up but just like Ethiopian history and world history I will never forget the name Eskinder Neja.
Sycophancy
It’s very surprising that in the times we live in, there is still room to join the league of legends like Madiba in issues of freedom. More surprisingly in a country that is hailed in Africa for successfully resisting colonial rule. Ethiopians refused to be oppressed – or at least their ancestors did. Now, their government is run on fear, fear of detention, fear of torture, fear of being labeled a terrorist or a traitor, fear of wasting 18 years of your life in jail, fear of telling the truth.
Globally, press freedom has come a long way and what is happening in Ethiopia takes us back very many years. Since 2012 the Ethiopian government has imprisoned 13 journalists according to the Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ).
Journalists in that country go through thick and thin to get the truth out there. But to who? People who would read the story of a detained journalist like it’s just another story? People who don’t care for the people who care that they are oppressed? People who would rather conform and die from disease and poverty than object and risk jail? The same people, who will be ordered to arrest, torture and detain the journalists? One might wonder why a person would risk their life for such a people. But the truth is that they do it for the truth, for the greater good.
There is a very big difference between respect and fear. Fear breeds hate, respect breeds admiration. Leaders are respected, dictators are feared. Leaders are elected, dictators are overthrown.
The Ethiopian government should understand that elections are not the only measure of democracy. To a very large extend press freedom determines the maturity of a democratic state. The moment people start fearing their government that is when it stops being a government for the people. I know someone would say I am comfortably writing about other countries while my own is not any much better but this is not a message to Ethiopia its just in the context of Ethiopia.
democracy 3
Looking at this 2013 press freedom index done by reporters without boarders I am not surprised to find Ethiopia at 137. Zimbabwe and Afghanistan give more press freedom than our sorry neighbors. Kenya is hovering at number 71 – maybe because of that media bill. The first African country is Namibia at number 19. It is very shocking that there are over 40 more countries under Ethiopia. One wonders what could be happening to journalists in these countries.
It’s a global truth that when a government is paranoid about being overthrown that is the time it deserves to be overthrown the most. There is a reason the Ethiopian government is detaining journalist at the rate it is. And that is because they are not providing the rightful democratic rights and privileges they ought to give their citizenry. So instead of accepting criticism, they would rather violently silence any form of dissent.
Today I join the global call for the freedom of Eskinder Nega and all the other journalists whose only crime was telling the truth.
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