Published on 1 June 2009
11 January 2010 - United Nations asked to investigate the fate of journalists imprisoned in Eritrea
10 December 2009 - Journalist Dawit Isaac still in prison after more than eight years
9 October 2009 - Journalist’s choice as Sakharov Prize finalist hailed as victory for Eritrean prisoners of conscience
This young country’s president makes no bones about his totalitarian tendencies. He believes a price must be paid for Eritrea’s independence. Basic freedoms were officially “suspended” in 2001 after ruling party dissidents started to suggest that democracy was long overdue. Every hint of opposition is portrayed as duplicity or treason. The privately-owned media have all been shut down while the content of the state media is worthy of the Soviet era.
In just a few years, this small Red Sea country has been turned into a vast open prison, ruled with an iron hand by an ultra-nationalist clique centred on Afeworki. At least 16 journalists have vanished into Eritrea’s 314 prison camps and detention centres. Four of them, including the distinguished playwright Fessehaye (“Joshua”) Yohannes, have died in the extremely harsh conditions of these prisons. The government initially portrayed the journalists as common-law prisoners, then as spies and finally simply denied their existence. When an Al-Jazeera journalist asked Afeworki about the imprisoned journalists in May 2008, he replied: “There were never any. There aren’t any. You have been misinformed.”
In September 2001, the Eritrean government ordered that all of the country’s privately owned publications be closed down. In the days that followed, police arrested above fifteen or so journalists and took them to Asmara’s police station No.
