Protest against the German radio station "Deutsche Welle":

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) charged the Ethiopian

government on Wednesday with wanting to silence, after the

inland media, the last independent foreign media. The

Ethiopian Foreign Office had announced that it would hand

over in the next few days a protest resolution to the

German Parliament against the supposedly "unbalanced and

destructive" reporting of the " Deutsche Welle". "The

comprehensive reporting of the `Deutsche Welle´ on everyday

political life and infringements of human rights is for the

Ethiopian people extremely valuable in the light of the

state censure", said the GfbV Africa correspondent, Ulrich

Delius. It is only in this way that the citizens of Ethiopia

can get their own view of what is happening in their

country, for it is only in China, Cuba and Eritrea that the

freedom of the press is trampled on worse. It is to the

merit of the "Deutsche Welle" and the "Voice of America"

radio station, which is also the subject of massive

criticism, that in Ethiopia there are fewer people now of

whom it can be said that they "don´t have a clue about

what´s going on". This is borne out by the growing number

of listeners to the German station in rural areas. Only

recently the Oromo asked the station to broadcast in their

language too. At least 21 journalists are at present in

custody in Ethiopia, among them being several members of

the oppressed ethnic group of the Oromo, criticised the

GfbV. On account of the oppression an increasing number of

journalists have had to leave the country. So in the year

2004 alone twelve Oromo journalists fled abroad because

they were being persecuted for their critical reporting of

the security forces. After the bloody crushing of protests

against the manipulated parliamentary elections in May 2005

the repression of independent media reached a new high. So

14 journalists have been brought to court for "high

treason" and " stirring up genocide" together with 100

supposed supporters of the opposition movement. More than

ten newspapers have had to close since November 2005 on

account of pressure from the administration On the

internet also the free exchange of opinions is being

increasingly suppressed. In this week at least 23 of 32

critical Ethiopian internet journals (bloggers) have been

closed for Ethiopian internet users. They can only be

reached from abroad.