Reeyot Alemu | |
---|---|
Born | |
Nationality | Ethiopia |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Journalism |
Reeyot Alemu is an Ethiopian journalist who served a 5-year prison sentence following an unfair trial in which anti-terrorism laws were used to silence her writing. [2] She won the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in 2013. [3]
Reeyot Alemu was born in 1980. [4] She was a high school teacher until 2000, when she started working as a columnist for several local newspapers including the independent weekly newspaper Feteh . [2] In 2010, she founded her own publishing house and became the editor in chief of her own monthly magazine called Change, both of which were closed. [4] Her articles covered social and political affairs as well as poverty and gender issues.
In June 2011, she was arrested by Ethiopian authorities on charges of terrorism, for which she was convicted and sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment and a fine of 33,000 birrs (US$1,850). [5]
In August 2012, an appeals court subsequently reduced the 14-year prison sentence to 5 years and dropped most of the terrorism charges against her. [6] She was serving a five-year term at Kaliti Prison.
Reeyot was released on July 9, 2015, after serving four years. [7]
In 2012, the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) bestowed a Courage in Journalism Award on her in absentia for her “refusal to self-censor in a place where that practice is standard, and her unwillingness to apologize for truth-telling, even though contrition could win her freedom.” [5] She has also won Hellman/Hammett press freedom prize. [8]
In May 2013, she was awarded the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize to honor her exceptional courage, resistance and commitment to freedom of expression. [3]
The United Nations General Assembly declared May 3 to be World Press Freedom Day or just World Press Day, observed to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined under Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and marking the anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration, a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in Windhoek in 1991.
Raúl Ramón Rivero Castañeda was a Cuban poet, journalist, and dissident.
Lydia María Cacho Ribeiro is a Mexican journalist, feminist, and human rights activist. Described by Amnesty International as "perhaps Mexico's most famous investigative journalist and women's rights advocate", Cacho's reporting focuses on violence against and sexual abuse of women and children.
According to the U.S. Department of State's human rights report for 2022, there exists "significant human rights issues" in Ethiopia. In addition to extrajudicial killings and instances of "enforced disappearance", other human right issues in Ethiopia include arbitrary arrest, the censorship and unjustified arrests of journalists, the use of child soldiers, and more.
Ahmad Zeidabadi is an Iranian journalist, academic, writer and political analyst and the secretary general of Office for Strengthening Unity. He is one of the notable figures of the Iranian reform movement.
The UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, created in 1997, honours a person, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger.
Christiana "Chris" Anyanwu MFR is a Nigerian journalist, publisher, author, and politician. She was imprisoned from 1995 to 1998 for treason after reporting on a failed coup d'état against the government of Sani Abacha, and won several international journalism prizes during her confinement, including the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.
Gao Yu is a Chinese journalist and dissident who has been repeatedly imprisoned.
Jineth Bedoya Lima is a Colombian journalist who was abducted in May 2000 and August 2003. In 2001, she was awarded the Courage In Journalism Award of the International Women's Media Foundation.She also won the Golden Pen of Freedom award by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers in 2020.
Eskinder Nega is an Ethiopian journalist, blogger and politician who has been jailed several times by the Ethiopian government on convictions for treason and terrorism.
Mazen Darwish is a Syrian lawyer and free speech advocate. He is the president of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression. News organizations, including Reuters and the Associated Press, have described him as one of Syria's most prominent activists. He was imprisoned in Syria from 2012 until his release in August 2015.
Temesgen Desalegn is an Ethiopian journalist. As an editor of the independent weekly newspaper Feteh, Desalegn went to court many times and was imprisoned from 2014 to 2017 as a result of his criticism of the national government, drawing protests on his behalf from the international press freedom groups Committee to Protect Journalists and Article 19 and from Amnesty International. In its 2014 report, the U.S. Department of State also reported its concern against Temsgen's 3 years sentence by the government, emphasizing that Freedom of expression and freedom of the press are fundamental elements of a democratic society and government. The Human Rights Watch also reported his charge in August 2012 and his three years sentence in 2014.
Feteh is an Ethiopian independent weekly newspaper founded in 2008 by Temesgen Desalegn. The paper is known for its critical coverage of Dr. Abiy's government. Its name translates into English as "Justice".
Andualem Aragie is an Ethiopian politician and activist who is the Deputy Leader of Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice (ECSJ), an opposition party formed after the merger of 7 smaller opposition parties in May 2019. He was formerly the vice president and press secretary for the Ethiopian-based Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJP). Andualem was sentenced to a life sentence on terrorism charges after being imprisoned on September 14, 2011 along with prominent journalist Eskinder Nega and opposition party members and reporters. His arrest has been ascribed by human rights organizations as a crackdown on dissent. Human Rights Watch also reported his detention as well as other members of the opposition and the potential for serious abuse during his imprisonment. He is now released from prison after the government pardoned him and other prisoners of conscience.
Khadija Rovshan qizi Ismayilova, alternatively spelled Ismailova, is an Azerbaijani investigative journalist and radio host who is currently working for the Azerbaijani service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, until recently as the host of the daily debate show İşdən Sonra. She is a member of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
The Zone 9 bloggers are a blogging collective from Ethiopia, who maintain a blog in Amharic. On 25 and 26 April 2014, the Ethiopian government arrested six members of the Zone 9 bloggers network and three other journalists, who faced terrorism charges for their writing at the time. The action had sparked an online protest.
Mahmoud Abu Zeid, also known as Shawkan, an Egyptian photojournalist, was arrested for taking photos of the Rabaa massacre in Cairo, Egypt and imprisoned during the post-coup unrest by the Egyptian government since 2013, where he faced the death penalty. By September 2018 he had been sentenced to a five-year prison term and was expected to be released shortly thereafter; he was released on 4 March 2019.
Kyaw Soe Oo is a Myanmar Reuters journalist who, with fellow reporter Wa Lone, was arrested on 12 December 2017 in Myanmar because of their investigation into the Inn Din massacre. A police witness testified that their arrests were a case of entrapment. It is believed their arrests were intended to intimidate journalists.
Bekele Gerba is an Ethiopian politician and activist. He is a member of Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) which promotes political change by nonviolence. He was imprisoned from 2011 to 2015, 2015–2018 and again on 30 June 2020 following the Hachalu Hundessa riots.
Elaheh Mohammadi is an Iranian journalist who reports on society and women's issues for the daily Ham-Mihan newspaper. She has also worked with state-controlled media outlets such as Shahrvand, Khabar Online and Etemad Online in the past years. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2023.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)