Tesfalem Waldeyes of Ethiopia Insider Being Held Despite Release Order
Director, Horn of Africa
Ethiopian authorities have been detaining the renowned journalist Tesfalem Woldeyes since Sunday on allegations of “dissemination false information,” despite a court order to release him on bail. Tesfalem is editor-in-chief of the independent media outlet Ethiopia Insider and has faced repeated harassment by the authorities.
The media reported that a plainclothes intelligence official arrested Tesfalem on June 8 at a hotel near a soccer stadium in Addis Ababa, the country’s capital. Dozens of fans were detained at the same time.
On June 10, Tesfalem appeared before a first instance court in the capital. The court ordered his release on bail, but the police argued they needed more time to investigate and have held him in a crowded police cell since. On June 11, the high court upheld the lower court’s decision, and on June 12, the cassation court rejected the police’s appeal.
Ethiopia’s police have long flouted court orders to release someone on bail, particularly when it comes to high-profile detainees.
The police also have a notorious reputation for investigating journalists under provisions of Ethiopia’s 2020 Hate Speech and Disinformation Prevention and Suppression Proclamation. The law contains an overbroad definition of “disinformation,” providing the authorities with excessive discretion to declare unpopular or controversial opinions “false.”
Throughout his career, Tesfalem has been targeted for his independent work, spending over a year in detention in 2014 on spurious terrorism charges during broader clampdowns on the media and social media groups. He was again briefly detained in 2021 after attending an ethnic Oromo cultural festival and reposting about protests at the event calling for the release of Oromo political detainees.
Over the past year, the Ethiopian authorities have tightened the screws on what remains of civic and media space in the country, intimidating journalists and rights activists, including with enhanced surveillance, as well as suspending key human rights organizations and raiding a key independent media outlet.
Ethiopia’s donors and partners need to call out this blatant harassment, urge Tesfalem’s immediate release, and press the government to end its clampdown on independent voices.