Eritrea under fire for reporters' detention. 19/09/2004. ABC News Online
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Search the ABC ABC Home | Radio | Television | News | More Subjects… | Shop News Home Top Stories Just In World Australia/Local Business Politics Weather Sport Health Arts Sci-Tech Media Environment Rural Indigenous Offbeat In-Depth Forums Services Help/Site Map Programs ------ RADIO ------ AM Back. Briefing Business Report Corresp. Report Go Asia Pacific NewsRadio PM Sunday Profile World Today ------ TV ------ 7.30 Report Asia Pacific Focus Aust. Story Foreign Corresp. Four Corners Inside Business Insiders Landline Lateline Stateline Print Email Last Update: Sunday, September 19, 2004. 1:01pm (AEST) Eritrea under fire for reporters' detention Branding Eritrea "Africa's biggest prison for the press," a media watchdog is urging the Government to free more than a dozen journalists jailed in a crackdown on newspapers three years ago. Human rights groups say the tiny country, which is home to about 4 million people, has one of the world's worst records for press freedom. It shut down all its private newspapers on September 18, 2001. "The situation is unique in the world," Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said. "Eritrea has been in an extended news blackout since that night in September 2001 when the Government closed the privately owned newspapers and imprisoned the leading journalists." Activists say the closure of the private press is just one feature of an appalling human rights situation in Eritrea. Amnesty International said in a May report that thousands of people have been locked up for criticising the Government. Eleven high-profile politicians have also been detained since September 2001 by Eritrean authorities, whom Amnesty also accuses of using torture and persecuting minority churches. President Isayas Afewerki has always denied there are any political prisoners, calling the detainees "traitors." Families say they are rarely given information on detainees' whereabouts. "Thanks to President Afewerki's stubbornness, Eritrea today is still the only country in Africa and one of the few in the world where only the Government's press has the right to publish," RSF said. It says at least 14 journalists have been detained without charge at unknown locations for the past three years, leaving Eritreans to depend on the state press and a few international radio stations for news. Eritrea expelled a reporter working for the BBC without explanation on September 10, removing the last foreign journalist working for an international news organisation. Jonah Fisher, who had reported from the capital Asmara for the past 18 months and had also been working as a freelance correspondent for Reuters, said at the time he had been told by Information Ministry officials to leave the country. Eritrean officials are not immediately contactable. -- Reuters Print Email ABC Top Stories Truck driver charged over fatal Vic crash Costello warns against economic 'L-plater' Pell entitled to voice stem cell view, says Howard Mokbel extradition a priority, says Govt Freed Forbes on way to hospital in Egypt: friend Australia bans two Fijians over coup Fake pilot emulates DiCaprio's on-screen antics Waugh lauds O'Neill return © 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), AAP(International), APTN, Reuters, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced. AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of UTC (Greenwich Mean Time)

Author not established. Eritrea under fire for reporters' detention. 19/09/2004. ABC News Online. Date not established. EHREA archive: /library/documents/doc-b27bfa7b9384e8c40886b6c5/
[1] Eritrea under fire for reporters' detention. 19/09/2004. ABC News Online. Original source: http://www.ehrea.org/detention19-09-2004Online.htm. Preserved original: /library/originals/d4bed1991dbba423f60ec0077eb64abe7300c643966b13082592f055ad8a7ee3.html. SHA-256: d4bed1991dbba423f60ec0077eb64abe7300c643966b13082592f055ad8a7ee3