Friday, July 13, 2012

Ethiopian blogger given 18 years for criticizing arrests of journalists

    Eskinder Nega is a prominent Ethiopian blogger. He won the coveted Pen America's Freedom to Write for his work. However Nega and 23 others were accused of having links to an opposition group called the Ginbot Seven. Ethiopia considers the group a terrorist organization. The 23 were found guilty of having links to this organization.  Nega was originally arrested last September after he had published a piece that questioned the government's  arrest of some journalists.
  While Nega was sentenced to 18 years another opposition activists Andualem Arage was given a life sentence. Human right group have criticized Ethiopia's anti-terrorism laws as being much too broad. This is not the first time that Nega has been arrested. Since starting his first newspaper in 1993 he has been arrested at least seven times!
   Amnesty International said. "The imprisonment… is emblematic of the Ethiopian government's determination to gag any dissenting voice in the country," For more see this article.  

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