MLDI launches fundraising bid for case of Ethiopian journalists

Media Legal Defence Initiative
Your support is needed to free two Ethiopian journalists wrongly convicted as terrorists and set a precedent that will help stop the abuse of anti-terror laws across Africa.

The Media Legal Defence Initiative has launched a fundraising campaign to support its bid to free Ethiopian journalists, Eskinder Nega and Reeyot Alemu.
MLDI has brought a legal challenge to the African Commission and Court of Human Rights, the main human rights tribunals at the African Union, asking them to declare that Reeyot and Eskinder’s conviction under Ethiopia’s anti-terrorist laws breaches their human rights and to stop the abuse of anti-terror laws to silence journalists.
While the legal team all give their time and expertise for free, there will be significant costs in attending hearings, translating numerous legal documents and other court-related expenses. MLDI is asking for donations to help cover these costs.
This fundraising campaign is one of the launch projects of Indie Voices, a new crowdfunding platform for independent media, which MLDI is proud to be part of.
To make a contribution or for more information, please click here.
Notes to editors:

• Mr Nega and Ms Alemu are award winning journalists and shared the Human Rights Watch Hellman-Hammett Award in 2012, awarded to journalists targeted for political persecution. Mr Nega has been working as a journalist since 1993. Prior to his most recent arrest in September 2011, he had been arrested on 7 previous occasions. He was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment in July 2012 for various offences under the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation.

• Ms Alemu writes on topics such as government policy and spending, the lack of an independent media in Ethiopia and the mistreatment of minorities. Her arrest in June 2011 occurred several days after she published an article criticising practices of Ethiopia’s ruling party. She was initially sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for offences under the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation, reduced to 5 years on appeal. Both journalists are reported to have spent time in solitary confinement. Mr Nega was also alleged to have been beaten and Ms Alemu was deprived of medical care following surgery 15 months ago.

• IndieVoices is a crowdfunding site that specializes in helping independent media, primarily in the developing world, raise the funds they need. Its goal is to serve as a bridge that connects social investors to high-quality, independent, and socially relevant news and content providers and media companies.

'India can partner Ethiopia in space technology' By IANS

Addis Ababa, Nov 28 (IANS) With Ethiopia launching a new space programme last month, India can have a promising partnership with Africa in this frontier technology, India's outgoing ambassador here has said.

"An Indian rocket may carry an Ethiopian satellite into space; that is possible," outoing envoy Bhagwant Singh Bishnoi told IANS at his farewell reception here organized by the Indian Business Forum (IBF) in Ethiopia.
"India's space launches are much cheaper (than in the West); hence launching micro satellites for Ethiopia is something that I think the two countries should work closely together for," he added.

After South Africa and Nigeria, Ethiopia is becoming a hub of Africa's aspirations in space with the East African nation's finalising the installation of two huge deep-space observatory telescopes to promote space research in the region, a prelude to its developing a space mission by launching its own satellites.

Indian technology has enabled the successful launching of satellites that now provide the country communication facilities and information on a range of subjects, including mineral deposits and weather trends.

"I will discuss this new partnership opportunity with my successor," Bisnoi said. On completing his four-year term, Bishnoi is moving to New York as deputy head of India's permanent mission at the UN. He will be succeeded by Sanjay Verma, currently India's consul general in Dubai.
He said Indian technological companies should invest in Ethiopia in the opportunities that are opening up. "The technologies that India brings are affordable, adoptable and suitable for household uses and others depending on the circumstances", the ambassador said.
"There is a lot of things that Indian industry has to offer."
During his tenure, the ambassador had encouraged Indian investment to Ethiopia and several Indian projects, especially in the manufacturing and agricultural sectors, have been set up.
"As a patron of IBF, he (Bishnoi) constantly guided us to achieve our main objectives of IBF," Mayur IBF president Suryakant Kothari told IANS.
According to Kothari, the other major contribution of the Indian ambassador was to create a platform for dialogue between Indian and Ethiopian government officials, which is also an objective of the IBF.
"Creating a dialogue between government officials is very important for investment and he enabled this platform where Indian investors frankly and candidly engage with Indian and Ethiopian government officials, and a lot of their challenges and problems were resolved," Kothari said.
One outcome of this dialogue is that India is the first country to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority (ERCA) that has been successfully implemented by both sides.
The first visit of Indian leaders like Vice President Hamid Ansari and Prime Mnister Manmohan Singh, as well as of Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn to India when he was foreign minister happened during Bishnoi's tenure.
(Hadra Ahmed can be reached at hadraahmed@gmail.com)