(15 September 2011, BBC)--Ethiopian reporter Argaw Ashine has told the BBC he has fled his country because he was cited in a US diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks last month.
He said he was interrogated by officials seeking the identity of his government source referred to in a 2009 cable about press harassment. "It was a bit scary... not a wise idea to stay in such a scenario," he said. Wikileaks says the cable does not cite Mr Argaw as a US embassy informant and "no journalistic source is named".
But the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says it is the first instance in which a citation in a Wikileaks cables has caused direct repercussions for a journalist. "The threat we sought to avert through redactions of initial Wikileaks cables has now become real," Joel Simon, the executive director of the US-based media watchdog said in a statement.
"A citation in one of these cables can easily provide repressive governments with the perfect opportunity to persecute or punish journalists and activists," he said. 'Big loss' Mr Argaw, who works for Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper and is chairman of the Ethiopian Environment Journalists Association, requested that his location not be revealed for safety reasons.
He said he fled over the weekend after he was summoned for intensive questioning by officials from the Government Communication Affairs Office (GCAO) on two occasions and a third time by the police with regard to the US cable of 26 October 2009. FULL ARTICLE AT BBC »
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Ethiopian journalist flees after named in WikiLeaks: Report
He said he was interrogated by officials seeking the identity of his government source referred to in a 2009 cable about press harassment. "It was a bit scary... not a wise idea to stay in such a scenario," he said. Wikileaks says the cable does not cite Mr Argaw as a US embassy informant and "no journalistic source is named".
But the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says it is the first instance in which a citation in a Wikileaks cables has caused direct repercussions for a journalist. "The threat we sought to avert through redactions of initial Wikileaks cables has now become real," Joel Simon, the executive director of the US-based media watchdog said in a statement.
"A citation in one of these cables can easily provide repressive governments with the perfect opportunity to persecute or punish journalists and activists," he said. 'Big loss' Mr Argaw, who works for Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper and is chairman of the Ethiopian Environment Journalists Association, requested that his location not be revealed for safety reasons.
He said he fled over the weekend after he was summoned for intensive questioning by officials from the Government Communication Affairs Office (GCAO) on two occasions and a third time by the police with regard to the US cable of 26 October 2009. FULL ARTICLE AT BBC »
Related topics:
Ethiopian journalist flees after named in WikiLeaks: Report
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