Eritrea’s press muzzling worsens

Since the Eritrean government’s campaign to shut down independent media began on 18 September 2001, a day known as ‘Black Tuesday’, reports say that many journalists have disappeared, been arrested and taken to undisclosed locations, and some have died as a result of torture and terrible conditions of imprisonment.

According to allafrica.com, the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) has recently called on the Eritrean diaspora – which played a leading role in the independence war from Ethiopia – to use its influence to force the government of President Issaias Afeworki to give an explanation about the disappearance of at least 14 journalists in the country’s prisons, four of whom are feared dead.

RSF’s call coincides with the 2000th day of ‘Black Tuesday’ – the day state police arrested 10 lawmakers, leading politicians, former ministers and independence veterans, who signed a petition calling for the restoration of democracy in Eritrea.

Eight leading independent newspapers were also forced to close that day, and at least 10 journalists were detained in the days that followed Black Tuesday, allafrica.com reports.

“He [President Afeworki] must immediately provide an explanation for the disappearance of prisoners of conscience, and free those who have not yet succumbed to the appalling conditions of his prisons,” the RSF said.

Four journalists, including Yusuf Mohamed Ali (50) an editor and a former guerrilla fighter, have since died in detention. Most recently, 10 ‘state journalists’ were arrested on suspicion of ‘trying to defect’.

“It is not known what has become of the journalists held,” RSF remarked. “Their families are not allowed to visit them and are afraid to request news of them for fear of reprisals. As for the journalists who have managed to flee the country, their relatives have been expelled from their homes, or arrested.”

The 2006 Worldwide Press Freedom Index paints, once again, a sad picture of press freedom in Africa, with no African country featuring among the top 20 countries.

Despite some hiccups, however, press freedom is still holding in Benin (23rd), followed by Namibia (26th), Mauritius (32nd), Ghana (34th), Mali (35th), South Africa (44th) and Cape Verde (45th), the report says.

While repressive countries such as Angola, Guinea and Kenya featured in number 91, 109 and 118 respectively, the index says that press freedom does not exist at all or is constantly under attack in Equatorial Guinea (137th), Zimbabwe (140th), the Democratic Republic of Congo (142nd), Somalia (144th) and Gambia (149th).

Eritrea took the 166th spot – the last three in the world, with Turkmenistan (167th) and North Korea (168th).