(June 16, 2012,(CPJ))--On Wednesday, the same day the White
House announced a strategic plan committing the United States to elevating its efforts in "challenging leaders whose actions threaten the
credibility of democratic processes" in sub-Saharan Africa, a senior
member of the U.S. Congress challenged the
erosion of press freedom in a key U.S. strategic partner in the Horn of Africa:
Ethiopia.
Underscoring the importance of Ethiopia as an important partner for the United States in containing terrorism and ending poverty and famine in the region, Senator Patrick Leahy, a democrat from Vermont, published on Thursday a statement in The Congressional Record, the official daily journal of U.S. Congress, in which he condemned the assault on the freedom of the Ethiopian press under Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
The senator argued that success for the Obama administration's new partnership with Meles on food security depends on "broad national consultation, transparency, and accountability," values, he said, that "depend in no small part on a free press."
Leahy highlighted the emblematic case of Ethiopia's most prominent imprisoned journalist and blogger, Eskinder Nega. Eskinder, whom PEN American Center honored this year with the Freedom to Write Award, could be convicted on June 21 on vague terrorism charges that carry a life sentence "simply for refusing to remain silent about the Ethiopian government's increasingly authoritarian drift." Read more from Committee to Protect Journalist »
Underscoring the importance of Ethiopia as an important partner for the United States in containing terrorism and ending poverty and famine in the region, Senator Patrick Leahy, a democrat from Vermont, published on Thursday a statement in The Congressional Record, the official daily journal of U.S. Congress, in which he condemned the assault on the freedom of the Ethiopian press under Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
The senator argued that success for the Obama administration's new partnership with Meles on food security depends on "broad national consultation, transparency, and accountability," values, he said, that "depend in no small part on a free press."
Leahy highlighted the emblematic case of Ethiopia's most prominent imprisoned journalist and blogger, Eskinder Nega. Eskinder, whom PEN American Center honored this year with the Freedom to Write Award, could be convicted on June 21 on vague terrorism charges that carry a life sentence "simply for refusing to remain silent about the Ethiopian government's increasingly authoritarian drift." Read more from Committee to Protect Journalist »
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