Ethiopia Journalist flees persecution

25 January, 2009

Reporter - Teshome Niku, who was a reporter for the Amharic Reporter, fled the country because of repeated threats from men he did not know.

Last year, Teshome did a series of reports on the controversy between the management and trade union of Dashen Brewery and was arrested in Addis Ababa by the Gonder Police. He was brought before a court in Gondar, after which he was released with a bail of 300 birr. Later, he was in the process of doing another story about the trade union when some strangers came all the way to the office to threaten him, his colleagues say.

In June, the Gondar Police had arrested the editor-in-chief, when they had meant to detain Teshome and the deputy editor-in-chief, the former for the second time. However, the editor-in-chief told the police he was responsible for the stories the paper carried, and Teshome and the deputy editor were not around the office at the time. The editor alone was thus taken to Gondar and imprisoned.

Teshome had faced threats and intimidation from different strangers wherever he moved within Addis Ababa, he told the Arada Sub-City Police in a letter dated September 15.

In his letter, Teshome told the police that the people who shadowed him not only gave him verbal threats but also pulled guns at him and he asked the police for protection.

After that, he was beaten at one time when he was going to work. Therefore, he feared for his life and ran away from Ethiopia. Friends of his finally say that he is in Kenya now.

Teshome Niku is a graduate of Political Science and International Relations from the Addis Ababa University. He had served as a senior reporter for the Amharic Reporter since September 2007.