December 31, 2013, ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — The Committee to Protect Journalists is urging the release of an Ethiopian journalist who was sentenced to more than two years in jail on the charge of spreading false rumors.
The watchdog group said Asfaw Berhanu, a former contributor to the private paper The Reporter, was convicted on Dec. 25 of charges stemming from a news story he wrote saying three government officials had been removed from their posts. An Ethiopian court sentenced him to two years and nine months in jail.
Berhanu’s paper later retracted the story and then fired him, the group said.
Ethiopia is among the world’s top jailers of journalists, says the journalists’ committee.
The Ethiopian government is accused of criminalizing the coverage of any group the government deems to be terrorists, including opposition political parties.
Source: AP
Nairobi, December 30, 2013 (CPJ)–An Ethiopian court convicted a journalist on December 25 on the charge of spreading false rumors and sentenced him to two years and nine months in prison, according to local journalists.
The First Instance Court in Hawassa, capital of the state of Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Regions, convicted Asfaw Berhanu, former contributor to the private bilingual paper The Reporter, in connection with a September 4 article he wrote for the publication that claimed three state government officials had been removed from their posts, local journalists said.
The officials had not actually been dismissed from their posts, the sources said. TheReporter issued a front-page retraction in its next edition and dismissed Asfaw, ReporterManaging Director Kaleyesus Berkeley said.
Asfaw is being held in Hawassa Prison, local journalists said. He plans to appeal the sentence, the same sources said.
“Asfaw Berhanu should not be jailed for making a mistake, especially after the Reporterapologized and issued a retraction,” said CPJ East Africa Representative Tom Rhodes. “Authorities should release Asfaw from prison immediately.”
On October 10, three policemen visited The Reporter office in Addis Ababa and arrested Managing Editor Melaku Demissie, taking him for questioning in connection with the September 4 news report, according to local journalists and news reports. The police commissioner ordered his release the same day, Melaku told CPJ.
Source: CPJ
Reporter’s stringer sentenced to two-year-and-nine-month imprisonment
December 28, 2013 (The Reporter) — The Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State, Hawassa Town First Instance Court sentenced Asfaw Berhanu, former stringer of Reporter, to a two-year-and-nine-month prison term on Wednesday December 25 for spreading false rumors.
Asfaw was charged on two counts. The first relates to a news report that was published on the front page of the September 4, 2013 issue of the Amharic-language Reporter newspaper stating that three deputy presidents of the regional state were removed from their posts while the second accuses him of failing to return government properties that came into his possession while he was working in the regional state’s Trade and Industry Bureau including a laptop, a field bag and a calculator.
Asfaw was convicted of the first charge only. He was acquitted of the second.
On October 10, 2013 Melaku Demissie, the Managing Editor of the Amharic Reporter, was arrested and taken to Hawassa for questioning in connection with the aforementioned news report and released the day after without being charged.
The news report was retracted on the next edition of the newspaper.
It was also reported that the Hawassa stringer, who wrote the erroneous story which caused this sentence faced administrative measures after the editorial team discovered that the story was in fact wrong.
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