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On Eve of Secretary of State Christopher's First Trip To Ethiopia, New Report To Reveal State of Jailing and Harassment of Journalists, and Widespread Press Restrictions in Ethiopia

CONTACTS:

BILL BRONROTT, 301-652-6016
KAKUNA KERINA, 212-465-1004, x103

CPJ Investigation Finds Ethiopia Imprisoned More Journalists in Past Three Years Than Any Other African Nation; CPJ to Urge Ethiopian & U.S. Government Reforms

• WHAT: On the day that Secretary of State Warren Christopher is expected to depart for his first official trip to in Africa, including a stop in Ethiopia, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) will hold a news conference to:
  

  (1) Issue a new report documenting how the Ethiopian government routinely harrasses, censors and imprisons journalists. (Over the past three years, more journalists have been jailed in Ethiopia than in other African country.); and

  (2) Make recommendations to the Ethiopian government to enact reforms to end the abuse of journalists, and to the U.S. government to foster press freedom in Ethiopia.

• WHEN: MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1996 . . . 10:00 a.m.

• WHERE: National Press Club (Zenger Room), 14th & F Sts, NW, Washington, DC

• WHO: Josh Friedman, Pulitzer prize winning reporter for Newsday and board member of the Committee to Protect Journalists; and Kakuna Kerina, Africa program coordinator, Committee to Protect Journalists.

• WHY: Friedman and Kerina recently conducted a 12-day fact-finding mission to Ethiopia to investigate the state of press freedoms there. The primary reasons for the mission were:
  The alarming fact that for three consecutive years, Ethiopia has imprisoned more journalists than any other African country; The mass arrests of journalists in 1995 for their coverage of the assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as he attended an Organization of African Unity (OAU) meeting in Addis Ababa, and on Ethiopia's former Communist dictator Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam, who is living in exile in Zimbabwe; and A critical need for firsthand analysis of the Ethiopian media, especially in light of the unprecedented social and political changes in the five years since Mengistu's regime was overthrown and democratic elections were held in 1995 for the first time.

The CPJ report will be released on October 7 -- the day Ethiopia's Parliament reconvenes and the day Secretary of State Christopher leaves on his first trip to Africa, including Ethiopia -- to focus attention on the numerous important media issues the Ethiopian legislators will address.

The Committee to Protect Journalists responds to attacks on press freedoms worldwide. CPJ investigates more than 2,000 cases every year and takes action on behalf of journalists and their news organizations without regard to political ideology.