January 4,
2013 -- It was only a matter of time before Ethiopian journalist Reeyot Alemu
was sent to prison. Her country has become one of the most oppressive in the
world for press freedom, with numbers of jailed journalists rising steadily
each year.
Alemu was
arrested on June 21, 2011, and accused of conspiracy to commit terrorist acts
and participation in a terrorist organization under the controversial 2009
Anti-Terrorism Proclamation. Based on no evidence other than her articles
criticizing the Ethiopian government, Alemu was sentenced to 14 years in
Ethiopia's notoriously ill-maintained Kaliti prison.
The arrest
of Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson, two Swedish journalists, made evident the
damage to its reputation the Ethiopian government was willing to accept in its
effort to silence independent reporters. They were picked up after crossing the
Somali-Ethiopian border illegally while reporting on ONLF rebels and the
humanitarian situation in the closed Ogaden region. The 14-month-long
diplomatic tug of war under the watchful eye of the international media ended
when Schibbye and Persson were pardoned and released in September 2012 after
they admitted guilt and were sentenced to eleven years in prison.
Reeyot
Alemu refused to admit guilt in exchange for clemency and has, instead,
appealed the verdict. In August 2012, to the surprise of many experts in the
diplomatic community, and in part due to the international attention Alemu has
received, including winning the 2012 IWMF Courage in Journalism Award, two
charges against her were dropped and her sentence was reduced to five years.
Alemu hasn't given up – her court dates have been postponed numerous times but
there is still a chance that the appeals court will decide to drop the
remaining terrorism charges against her on Tuesday, January 8th.
"Reeyot
is young and well-educated. She could have easily left her country or chosen a
different career - but she loves Ethiopia and her profession. She always held
her head high and she gave me strength", Martin Schibbye said in an
interview with the IWMF.
The first
time he met Reeyot Alemu was on a prison bus from Makelawi, the central police
investigation headquarters in Addis Ababa, to the Magistrate's Court where the
prosecution repeatedly filed 28-day extensions to keep political prisoners in
custody without charge. "What do you do?", Schibbye remembered asking Alemu on their first encounter. "I am a journalist", she replied.
They quickly realized that everyone on that bus was a journalist or a
politician from the opposition and that they were all charged with a crime they
hadn't committed: terrorism. "That was the moment when we realized that we
had ended up in a major crackdown against free speech in Ethiopia",
Schibbye told the IWMF.
Despite
being separated from each other for the majority of their time in prison, the
journalists in Kaliti felt a strong bond and built an emotional support network
to help each other through their long days of confinement and uncertainty.
"Even locked up in a dark room without shoelaces, deprived of your freedom
of expression as well as your physical freedom, you can still keep the most
valuable thing that nobody can take from you: the right to determine who you
are. Every morning we woke up and said to each other: We are journalists, not
terrorists ... this is just another day at the office", Schibbye said.
After
spending 438 days in the custody of Ethiopian authorities and closely
monitoring the cases of his Ethiopian journalistic colleagues, Schibbye
delivers a damning verdict on the state of democracy in Ethiopia. "There
is no such thing as an independent justice system, it's completely politicized.
If the order comes from the federal level that Reeyot is to let go, she will be
free. But if they feel that they gain more from keeping her in prison, for
example to scare other independent journalists, they will keep her locked up.
This decision lies entirely in the hands of the Ethiopian government."
Schibbye
suspects that intimidation of independent journalists played a substantial role
in Ethiopia's motivation to jail European journalists like himself and Johan
Persson. "Reeyot and some of the other jailed journalists were brought to
Johan's and my sentencing hearing", Schibbye recalled. "The Ethiopian
authorities forced them to witness the rendering of our verdict as if to say:
'Look what we can do to these European guys … imagine what we can do to
you!'"
While
organizations such as the IWMF may not have the political clout to provide
direct protection or effect instant change in situations like Alemu's, the
value of international attention should not be underestimated. "When
you're locked up as a prisoner of conscience, the greatest fear is to be
forgotten," Schibbye explained. "The support from the outside is what
keeps you going, it's more important than food and medicine. And international
recognition such as the IWMF Courage in Journalism Award does in fact provide a
certain level of protection. Prison guards and administrators will think twice
because they know the world is watching", he said.
Even though
their interactions were very limited due to a strict communication ban in
Kaliti prison, Schibbye was deeply impressed with Alemu's strong moral beliefs.
She hasn't grown tired of pointing out that she is a journalist, not a
terrorist. "During the interrogation in Makelawi, Reeyot never broke down.
She kept explaining to the police interrogators, some of them younger than her,
why she was fighting for freedom of speech and democracy", Schibbye
remembers.
The last
time Schibbye saw Alemu was in August 2012, not long before he and Persson were
released from prison. They passed each other outside the prison administration
offices, being escorted to and from their cells, Schibbye recalled. "She
looked fragile but she is a survivor!"
Source: IWMF.org (The International Women's Media Foundation)
________________________________________
Martin
Schibbye and Johan Persson are currently writing a book about their experience
in Ethiopia.
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