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Jonah Fisher
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Original spelling: Jonah Fisher. No reviewed aliases or translations have been assigned.
8 unique documents. Mentioned in source: 8. Role counts can overlap within a document.
Last week, the Eritrean government also expelled the last international journalist based in Asmara, ordering BBC correspondent Jonah Fisher to leave the country within three days. “As a foreigner, I am fortunate,” Fisher wrote in a BBC release on September 10. “Had I been Eritrean, I have little doubt that I would now be in detention.”
Added: Sep 15th, 2004 1:50 PM
Three Protestant pastors kept incommunicado.
Special to Compass Direct
LOS ANGELES, September 15 (Compass) -- Eritrean security police pounced on five evangelical Christians holding a prayer meeting in their church office in Asmara last week, hauling them off under arrest to a local police station.
Five members of the newly formed New Covenant Church meeting at an office building in the capital were taken into custody about 7:30 in the evening on September 7.
Reportedly six or seven security officials were systematically searching through an entire corridor of offices in the building when they came upon the small group praying together in their office.
After a day’s detention at Police Station No. 2, the one woman among them was released, but the four men were transferred to cells at the Adi-Abyto military camp outside Asmara. Among the jailed men was the pastor, identified only by his first name of Yohannes, and his assistant, named David.
Meanwhile, three leading Protestant pastors jailed since late May remain under arrest in a dungeon-like inner prison in Asmara, where many of Eritrea’s prominent political dissidents incarcerated over the past three years are believed to be held.
At last report, Pastor Tesfatsion Hagos of the Rema Evangelical Church and Full Gospel Church pastors Rev. Haile Naizgi and Dr. Kiflu Gebremeske were being held at Wongel Mermera, a government investigation center located behind Police Station No. 2 in the capital.
“Short-term imprisonment in this place is something which occurs rarely,” a source told Compass. Prison authorities have refused to allow the pastors’ families or friends to deliver any food or other provisions to the men since late August, when they were moved to Wongel Mermera from a local police station.
Popular evangelical Christian singer Helen Berhane also remains jailed in strict isolation in a metal container at Mai Serwa, just north of Asmara. Since her arrest four months ago, Berhane has refused to sign a promise to stop participating in evangelical activities and return to the Orthodox church.
According to reliable sources, an elderly man from the Jehovah’s Witnesses faith who had been incarcerated for many months in a container at Mai Serwa was finally released last week. Leaders of the government-targeted Jehovah’s Witnesses sect had feared for the man’s life, since he was 96 years old and suffering from chronic diarrhea.
Last week, the Eritrean government also expelled the last international journalist based in Asmara, ordering BBC correspondent Jonah Fisher to leave the country within three days. “As a foreigner, I am fortunate,” Fisher wrote in a BBC release on September 10. “Had I been Eritrean, I have little doubt that I would now be in detention.”
The regime of President Issayas Afewerki banned all of Eritrea’s independent Protestant churches in May 2002, ordering their buildings closed and criminalizing any meetings for private worship in members’ homes. The 12 outlawed denominations represent congregations totaling at least 20,000 members.
Along with adherents of Islam, who represent nearly half the population, only the Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran churches are recognized by the Department of Religious Affairs as “official” religions.
According to BBC correspondent Jonah Fisher, expelled in September after 18 months as an international reporter in Asmara, the Eritrean government seems to be “afraid that people who consider their highest allegiance to be [to] God, at some point may not be patriotic and follow the state’s instructions.”
As inimical to the media as the Eritrean government is, what befell Jonah Fisher is not unexpected. Mr. Fisher knew that once he crossed the red line, he would be thrown out. He wasn’t expelled because he was caught trying to uncover the fate of those deported from Malta; he wasn’t caught investigating the whereabouts of the arrested citizens. What kept him for 17 months in Asmara was his skill in tip-toeing over the red lines. But reporting is not about tiptoeing; it is about demolishing the red and green lines in search of truth. What he didn’t know is that in authoritarian states like Eritrea, any hastily drawn line is a red line: there are no rules, there is no due process. All they have is moods.
If the BBC’s Jonah Fisher proved himself to be a poor reporter, another BBC employee, Martin Plaut, is showing himself to be a sluggish analyst. Eritrea is not immune from the follow-the-herd scholarship that affects every subject, which has resulted in books about Eritrea that are, in the words of Awate columnist Burhan Ali, “a re-arranged reproduction of the contents of the previous one.” Several years ago, we wrote “Chronology of the Reform Movement” and, sure enough, Mr. Plaut merely rearranged what we wrote and christened it “The Birth of The Eritrean Reform Movement.” We forgot to be flattered: you see, to us, the Reform Movement of 2000 is just one in a series of attempts to bring liberty to Eritreans; to people like Martin Plaut, it was "the birth."
Eritreans’ struggle for establishing a nation that respects the rights of all its citizens has not been served well by the two BBC employees that are “assigned” to Eritrea. In fact, the expulsion of Jonah Fisher hurts the government more than it hurts the Eritrean people. Given their erratic nature, we expect the Eritrean authorities to invite the BBC back by claiming that their quarrel is not with the BBC as an institution but with the reporter. When they do, we beg the BBC to send a seasoned reporter who is unfazed by authority. Eritrea is a small nation and may not be a priority for BBC; however, if the magnitude of the people’s suffering--as opposed to the size of population--means anything, Eritrea deserves serious attention from the BBC. As for analysts, we understand that they are not governed by the same constraints that reporters are; we hope the BBC will consider analysts whose loyalties to individuals and organizations does not cloud their analysis, as is obviously the case with Mr. Plaut.
As inimical to the media as the Eritrean government is, what befell Jonah Fisher is not unexpected. Mr. Fisher knew that once he crossed the red line, he would be thrown out. He wasn’t expelled because he was caught trying to uncover the fate of those deported from Malta; he wasn’t caught investigating the whereabouts of the arrested citizens. What kept him for 17 months in Asmara was his skill in tip-toeing over the red lines. But reporting is not about tiptoeing; it is about demolishing the red and green lines in search of truth. What he didn’t know is that in authoritarian states like Eritrea, any hastily drawn line is a red line: there are no rules, there is no due process. All they have is moods.
If the BBC’s Jonah Fisher proved himself to be a poor reporter, another BBC employee, Martin Plaut, is showing himself to be a sluggish analyst. Eritrea is not immune from the follow-the-herd scholarship that affects every subject, which has resulted in books about Eritrea that are, in the words of Awate columnist Burhan Ali, “a re-arranged reproduction of the contents of the previous one.” Several years ago, we wrote “Chronology of the Reform Movement” and, sure enough, Mr. Plaut merely rearranged what we wrote and christened it “The Birth of The Eritrean Reform Movement.” We forgot to be flattered: you see, to us, the Reform Movement of 2000 is just one in a series of attempts to bring liberty to Eritreans; to people like Martin Plaut, it was "the birth."
Eritreans’ struggle for establishing a nation that respects the rights of all its citizens has not been served well by the two BBC employees that are “assigned” to Eritrea. In fact, the expulsion of Jonah Fisher hurts the government more than it hurts the Eritrean people. Given their erratic nature, we expect the Eritrean authorities to invite the BBC back by claiming that their quarrel is not with the BBC as an institution but with the reporter. When they do, we beg the BBC to send a seasoned reporter who is unfazed by authority. Eritrea is a small nation and may not be a priority for BBC; however, if the magnitude of the people’s suffering--as opposed to the size of population--means anything, Eritrea deserves serious attention from the BBC. As for analysts, we understand that they are not governed by the same constraints that reporters are; we hope the BBC will consider analysts whose loyalties to individuals and organizations does not cloud their analysis, as is obviously the case with Mr. Plaut.
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.
According to BBC correspondent Jonah Fisher, expelled in September 2004 after 18 months as an international reporter in Asmara, the Eritrean government seems to be "afraid that people who consider their highest allegiance to be [to] God, at some point may not be patriotic and follow the State's instructions."
This has put them at odds with Eritrean officials, who seem to believe the state is sovereign in people’s lives—even over God. Jonah Fisher, a former BBC correspondent based in Asmara, writes that the repression of religion is a result of the government being “afraid that people who consider their highest allegiance to be God, at some point may not be patriotic and follow the state’s instructions,” according to his September 17, 2004, report published by the BBC.