Released editor calls his detention in Gondar an “eye-opener”

Brewery driver poses as police officer - Ethiopian Reporter

31 August, 2008

After spending six days in a regional state prison, Amare Aregawi described his experience as an eye-opener to how little attention is being given to the plight of average citizens in different parts of the country.

“The lesson learned from this is that there is more work ahead of us as journalists. People have so much to say about their plight and only because they are far away from the capital and have little or no access to an information outlet, they are forced to accept injustice,” Amare, who is editor of this newspaper and the Amharic Reporter, said on Thursday after his release.

He was arrested because of two articles published in the Amharic Reporter regarding a labor dispute within the Dashen Brewery. Earlier, the journalist who wrote the story was arrested and taken to Gondar, transported there in a vehicle owned by the brewery.

Amare was picked from his office on August 22 and taken to Gondar which is some 750 kilometers north of Addis Ababa. He was also transferred to Gondar in a vehicle owned by the same brewery.

It is questionable whether the case warranted his arrest and his transfer to the Amhara Regional State. According to the law, the case is under federal jurisdiction.

“We as media people have limited ourselves to Addis Ababa that we are blind to the suffering and injustice meted out to thousands outside the capital. So many people around the country continue to be subjected to the whims of officials,” Amare said.

After posting a 300 birr bond, Amare was released late on Wednesday. The same thing had happened to the reporter who wrote the stories.

On August 22, two individuals who came to arrest Amare, his deputy Eshete Asefa, and the reporter Teshome Niku, he had asked them to show identification cards, one had failed, claiming that he had left it at a hotel reception.

This same individual, according to Amare, was giving orders to police officers here in Addis Ababa as well as in Gondar.

Amare later learned that the person whose name is Teodros was a driver for the Dashen Brewery.
“The police in Gondar were dumbfounded when I spoke of two officers, or made any reference to the second ‘officer who said was in charge of the situation.’ They had only sent one officer to escort me. Upon describing him, they told me that he was a driver of Dashen Brewery.”

The officer who took Amare to Gondar, a sergeant Muktar was also responsible for investigating the case of Teshome Niku, the reporter who wrote the brewery’s labor dispute story.

“People will ask ‘were you harassed? Were you assaulted? None of those things happened. But that is not my standard of justice. I am not going to complain that they did not give me water or that it was cold there and what have you. I am saying that the way the legal process was being handled was all wrong.

“The way the accusation was made, the way I was arrested, how I communicated with the court being prevented from facing the judges, the number of judges who looked at the case, being transported from Addis Ababa to Gondar, and from prison to court, in the accuser’s vehicle. Standing in court where the plaintiff was not present. It was all confusion.”

This is not just an issue of press freedom it is a question of national importance regarding the rule of law, Amare said.

“Here you have living, breathing people who wait outside a prison to bring you food, water and follow up your case. And these are the people who were fired from the brewery. And you have on the other hand those who say that these people do not exist and drag others to court for telling the truth.”

Amare is expected to appear before the court in Gondar next Monday.