Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 21:00:12 +0200
Ethiopian Editor Convicted for Inciting Public With Articles
By William Davison
Oct 16, 2014 2:11 PM GMT+0200
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An Ethiopian editor is facing as many as 10 years in prison after being
convicted of inciting the public against the government through his
newspaper articles, his lawyer said.
Temesgen Desalegn, the former editor of Feteh, a defunct weekly newspaper,
was convicted yesterday by the Federal High Court on charges that also
included defaming the government and distorting public opinion, after a case
that lasted about two years, lawyer Ameha Mekonnen said. He will be
sentenced on Oct. 27.
"Temesgen becomes the first journalist who's accused and found guilty only
for what he's written in a newspaper," Ameha said by phone today from
<http://topics.bloomberg.com/ethiopia/> Ethiopia's capital,
<http://topics.bloomberg.com/addis-ababa/> Addis Ababa. "The evidence was
only his writing, nothing else."
Communications Minister Redwan Hussien said that the conviction was for
articles Temesgen wrote for Feteh about two years ago. The case concerned
"incitement and misinforming the public," he said by phone.
Ethiopia is <http://topics.bloomberg.com/africa/> Africa's second-biggest
jailer of journalists after neighboring Eritrea as of Dec. 2013,
<http://cpj.org/imprisoned/2013.php> according to the New York-based
Committee to Protect Journalists. Government officials say journalists are
not above the law and aren't prosecuted because of their profession.
Last week, an Ethiopian court sentenced three magazine-owners in absentia to
more than three years imprisonment each on charges of instigating the public
to overthrow the government and fomenting ethnic tension. Temesgen was
involved with one of their publications, Fact, Ameha said. The trial of six
bloggers and three journalists accused of links with outlawed groups resumes
tomorrow in Addis Ababa.
Temesgen was prosecuted under Article 257 of the country's
<http://www.wipo.int/edocs/lexdocs/laws/en/et/et011en.pdf> 2004 Criminal
Code, Ameha said. The provision relates to the "provocation and preparation"
of a range of crimes against the state, according to the law. An Ethiopian
court banned Feteh's distribution in July 2012 after it published front-page
stories on the illness of late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and protests by
Muslims in Addis Ababa.
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