Written by: Graham Peebles April 19, 2012
Democracy Denied
Media
freedom is a basic pillar of any democratic society. Freedom of
political expression, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press are
essential elements of a democracy. Whilst media independence throughout
the world is contentious at best, autonomy from direct State ownership
and influence is a crucial element in establishing an independent media.
The Ethiopian State owns and strictly controls the primary media of
television and radio. Not only is there no independent TV and radio in
Ethiopia, but access to information is also tightly controlled, as Human
Rights Watch (HRW) makes clear in its report, One Hundred Ways of
Putting Pressure. Violations of Freedom of Expression and Association in
Ethiopia, “the independent media has struggled to establish itself in
the face of constant government hostility and an inability to access
information from government officials.” Since the 2005 elections in
Ethiopia the government has systematically introduced tighter and
tighter methods of control, HRW continues, over the past five years the
Ethiopian government has restricted political space for the opposition,
stifled independent civil society, and intensified control of the media.
Owning information
Since
the end of the civil war in 1991 privately owned newspapers and
magazines have been appearing and despite heavy regulation by the Meles
government, this area of Ethiopian media is expanding. This the
government reluctantly tolerates, knowing that print media is of little
significance, due to low literacy of the adult population (48%), a
shameful figure that the EPRDF is no doubt delighted with, high levels
of poverty and poor infrastructure making distribution difficult,
newspapers are not widely circulated or read, consequently the main
source of information for the majority of people is the state owned
television and radio, which serve as little more than a mouthpiece of
propaganda for the resident regime, the EPRDF.
Internet media is
also restricted, with access to the web the lowest in Africa; Research
& Markets found “Ethiopia has the lowest overall teledensity in
Africa. The population is approaching 90 million, but there are less
than 1 million fixed lines in service, and a little more than 3.3
million mobile subscribers. The number of internet users is dismal –
below 500,000 at the end of 2009.” 1 The World Bank puts the figure a
little higher at 7.5% of the population. In another demonstration of
democratic duplicity, the government of Ethiopia controls all
telecommunications. Internet and telephone systems must run through the
State owned Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation. The vast majority
of the population – 82.40% in 2010, according to a World Bank report
released in 20112, live in rural areas and have no access to the
‘worldwide web’ at all. By maintaining monopoly control of
telecommunications the Ethiopian Government is denying the majority of
the population access to another key area of mass information. This is
an additional infringement of basic democratic principles of diversity
and social participation, as Noam Chomsky makes clear “The most
effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from
the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes,
priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern
corporations.”3 Party dictatorships fits the Ethiopian government
tailor-made, although their arrogance and vanity would no doubt prefer
the title of ‘kings and princes’, Emperor Meles perhaps, following in
the brutal glow of that other conceited controller Halie Sellassie. The
EPRDF regime is in fact a dictatorship and known as such to the majority
of Ethiopians living inside and indeed outside the country, who are
courageous enough to speak out and make their views known. Courageous
indeed, for as with all cowardly brutal states, the EPRDF rules by
violence, intimidation and fear, HRW again Ethiopia’s citizens are
unable to speak freely, organize political activities, and challenge
their government’s policies through peaceful protest, voting, or
publishing their views without fear of reprisal. Such is democratic
living under the Meles machine.
Law Breakers
Freedom of
thought, freedom of expression and of information is a basic requirement
under the UDHR. Article 19 makes this clear “Everyone has the right to
freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold
opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
Although the UDHR is not in itself a legally binding document, it
provides moral guidance for states and offers a clear indication of what
we as a world community have agreed as the basic requirements of
correct governance and civilized living. In the preamble is stated “it
is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last
resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights
should be protected by the rule of law.” Tyranny and oppression is the
cloud under which the good people of Ethiopia are living and have lived
for the twenty-year rule of President Meles and co. It is through the
implementation and enforcement of international law, established to
safeguard the people’s basic human rights that the suffering and
injustices may and will be brought to an end. The sister document to the
UDHR the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
provides such legal protection and is indeed legally binding. There we
find, Article 19, paragraph 1 ” Everyone shall have the right to hold
opinions without interference.” And paragraph 2 “ Everyone shall have
the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to
seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless
of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art,
or through any other media of his choice.”
Ethiopia ratified this
international treatise on 11th June 1993, and is therefore legally
bound by its articles. By imposing tight regulatory controls on media
inside and indeed outside of Ethiopia, the case of ESAT TV based in
Holland, whose satellite signal is repeatedly [illegally} blocked by the
EPRDF, is an important case in question. Not only is the Ethiopian
government in violation of international law, but by completely
restricting the freedom of the media and inhibiting completely any hint
of dissent, the regime is also in contradiction of its own constitution.
Article 29, entitled rather optimistically ‘Right of Thought, Opinion
and Expression’ states, 1. Everyone has the right to hold opinions
without interference. 2. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression
without any interference. This right shall include freedom to seek,
receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of
frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or
through any media of his choice. 3. Freedom of the press and other mass
media and freedom of artistic creativity is guaranteed. Freedom of the
press shall specifically include the following elements: (a) Prohibition
of any form of censorship. (b) Access to information of public
interest.4 Clear and noble words, indeed democratic in content and tone,
however words that sit filed neatly upon the shelf of neglect and
indifference, as the people suffer and cry out to their mother country,
serve only as a mask of convenience and deceit allowing the betrayal of
the many to continue. Human Rights Watch gently states, the 1995
constitution incorporates a wide range of human rights standards, and
government officials frequently voice the state’s commitment to meeting
its human rights obligations. But these steps while important, have not
ensured that Ethiopia’s citizens are able to enjoy their fundamental
rights.
State suppression
In 2009 the EPRDF passed two
inhibiting pieces of legislation that embody some of the worst aspects
of the governments decent towards greater repression and political
intolerance. The controversial CSO law, is according to HRW, one of the
most restrictive of its kind, and its provisions will make most
independent human rights work impossible. A ‘counterterrorism’ law was
introduced at the same time; this second piece of repressive legislation
allows the government and security forces to prosecute political
protesters and non-violent expressions of dissent as terrorism. Since
the introduction of these internationally criticised laws, the UN
Jubilee Campaign in its report ‘Human Rights Council Universal Periodic
Review Ethiopia’ recommends the adoption of this law [emphasis mine] be
repealed,” the umbrella term ‘terrorist’, meaning anyone who disagrees
with the party/state line continues to be used and manipulated as
justification for all manner of human rights violations and methods of
suppression and control – the aim of all dictatorships. What defines a
terrorist or an act of terrorism remains vague and ambiguous, enabling
the Meles regime to construct definitions that suit them at any given
time. Amongst other travesties of justice the legislation, The Bureau of
Investigative Journalism reveals, “permits a clamp down on political
dissent, including political demonstrations and public criticisms of
government policy, it also deprives defendants of the right to be
presumed innocent.“5 A primary function of the media in a democratic
society is to examine and criticise the government and provide a public
platform for debate and participation. This law denies such interaction
and freedom of expression. The law is in violation of the ICCPR and
blatantly contravenes the much-championed Ethiopian constitution;
idealised images of goodness, remaining un-manifest, stillborn.
The
anti-terror law is a pseudonym for a law of repression and control,
made and enforced by a paranoid regime, that is determined to use all
means in its armoury to quash any dissent and maintain a system of
disinformation and duplicity. Media organisations that disagree with the
EPRDF party line run the risk of being branded, under this law
‘terrorists’, arrested and imprisoned as such. Dawit Kebede,
editor-in-chief of Awramba Times, says “the law provides a pretext for
the government to intimidate and even arrest journalists who fall afoul
of its wording. Kebede said the regulations were a government campaign
to oppress all forms of dissident activity.” (Ibid) This new unjust law
completely inhibits ability of the media to report anything that is
deemed critical of the current government. All opposing voices to policy
are stifled; journalists are frightened and the facility to expose and
criticize the many serious violations of human rights, to provide a
balanced view of the issues facing the country are denied. The rights to
freedom of expression and association are completely restricted, all
independent voices have been virtually silenced and freedom of speech
and opinion are denied. Human Rights Watch makes clear its concern, over
the past five years the Ethiopian government has restricted political
space for the opposition, stifled independent civil society, and
intensified control of the media.6
Control flows from fear, the
greater the dishonesty, corruption and greed the more extreme the
controls become. Under the neglectful corrupt governance of the EPRDF,
Ethiopians are subjected to a range of human rights abuses and
violations political opposition has been unofficially banned, making
this democracy sitting in the Horn of Africa a single party
dictatorship. The UN in its human rights report finds, “resistance to
opposition has become the primary source of concern regarding the future
of human rights in Ethiopia” and confirms the view of HRW, stating “The
CSO law directly inhibits rights to association, assembly and free
expression.” The Meles regime seek, as all isolated corrupt
dictatorships do, to centralize power, deny dissent and freedom of
expression and suppress the people by intimidation, violence and fear.
Creating an atmosphere of apprehension, extinguishing all hope of
justice, true human development and freedom from tyranny. Disempowerment
is the aim, the means are well known, crude and unimaginative, keep the
people uneducated, deny them access to information, restrict their
freedom of association and expression and keep them entrapped.
Demanding justice
The
downtrodden suppressed people of Ethiopia, living under the brutality
of the Meles regime, whose human rights are being ignored, without an
effective media, have no voice. The controls that deny media freedom and
the people the freedom of association and expression, guaranteed under
the Ethiopian constitution and international law, must be repealed, HRW
in its detailed report makes a series of basic demands of the Ethiopian
government, which reinforce this, key among them is the call to
“Guarantee unrestricted access to Ethiopia to international media and
independent human rights investigators, and cease harassment of
Ethiopian media.”
The days of the dictator are over, no amount of
repressive legislation can any longer safeguard a regime that rules
through violence and inhibition. Meles and his cronies ensconced behind
armed walls of duplicity, may well seek control, the fearful always do,
the will of the people though is for freedom, justice and peace, enjoy
your privilege President Meles, for your days are numbered, the will of
the people must and shall be done for justice and the rule of law
underlies their every call for liberty and the observation of their
human rights.
No comments:
Post a Comment