Mereja.Forum

[Somaliman]

Between 1997 to 2001 private press in the form of print media operated in Eritrea but this was under a restrictive legal domestic framework. There were eight private newspapers until September 2001.

In 2001 senior government officials known as “G-15” demanded democratic reforms and the enforcement of the 1997 ratified Constitution. In September 2001, Afwerki clamped down on 11 members of the “G-15” falsely accusing them of treason and said they were a threat to national security. Afwerki's totalitarian regime proceeded to close private newspapers and imprisoned 18 journalists for providing platforms to the “G-15” to express their views. Since then both the political prisoners and journalists have been held incommunicado in secret prison facilities without charges. Many of the journalists and writers are believed to have died in detention. In effect, since September 2001 no private media has existed in Eritrea.

Only state-owned and state-operated media, which are a mouthpiece for Afwerki, rather than holding his oppressive and repressive tyrannical regime to account, exists in the country. These include TV, radio, and print outlets.

Freedom of expression, exchange of information and communication in public places such as tea shops, buses, taxis, restaurants, bus terminals, offices, schools and colleges, public, social and religious events are closely monitored by spies working for the regime. Even Eritreans in the diaspora are afraid to express themselves publicly for fear of reprisals against their relatives back home.

Journalists who've worked for such Afwerki controlled media outlets and have managed escape still fear that their families back home will be targeted as Afwerki's despotic regime punishes family members because of association.

The UN Commission of Inquiry on the Situation of Human Rights in Eritrea.

[Somaliman]

Eritrea, known as "The prison State", is holding the number one spot for the most censored country in the world.

According to Media watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Eritrea beats North Korea and Turkmenistan to become the number one worst repressive country in the world for press and media.

I wonder what the clown at Menelik Palace can learn from a butcher running a prison state!

[euroland]

Little Agameman, the son of cheap whorr

Your relatives’s priorities, (unlike your masters, the Eritreans) isn’t the censorship of free press ; their main concern is whether they have food in the table to night or go empty stomach again.