On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, EHRC Chief Commissioner Daniel Bekele recalled the Commission’s Statement to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in April 2022, where concern over the detention without due process of journalists and media personnel over the past year, despite subsequent release of several, was strongly highlighted.
The Chief Commissioner expressed concern about the recent arrest of journalist Gobeze Sisay whose whereabouts remain unknown since being taken by plain cloth officers on Sunday morning as of the time of publication of this statement.
Daniel Bekele also noted that “monitoring of the situation of journalists and media personnel in detention is only part of the work on press freedom. The overall nationwide media landscape can be affected by several factors including taxation, production costs, access to information, ability to organize and infrastructure. This calls for a strong coordination and collaboration among all state and civil society stakeholders working on press and media related issues in Ethiopia.”
