{"id":14630,"date":"2012-07-20T17:35:33","date_gmt":"2012-07-20T21:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/humanrightsleague.com\/?p=13528"},"modified":"2012-07-20T17:35:33","modified_gmt":"2012-07-20T21:35:33","slug":"intimidation-of-journalists-in-ethiopia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.humanrightsleague.org\/?p=14630","title":{"rendered":"UN rights chief \u2018seriously alarmed\u2019 by intimidation of journalists in Ethiopia"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><a href=\"http:\/\/cdn.bikyamasr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/08-10-2010pillay.jpg\" rel=\"wp-prettyPhoto[g73314]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"08-10-2010pillay\" src=\"http:\/\/cdn.bikyamasr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/08-10-2010pillay.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"120\" \/><\/a><\/h1>\n<p>Navi Pillay concerned over journalists being jailed in Ethiopia.<\/p>\n<p>The top United Nations human rights official this week said she is \u201cseriously alarmed\u201d by the current climate of intimidation against journalists and human rights defenders in Ethiopia due to an overly broad interpretation of laws concerning terrorism and civil society in the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe recent sentencing of 20 Ethiopians, including prominent blogger Eskinder Nega, journalists and opposition figures, under the vague anti-terrorism law has brought into stark focus the precarious situation of journalists, human rights defenders and Government critics in the country,\u201d the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said in a news release.<\/p>\n<p>Charging journalists and political opposition members with terrorism and treason charges is seriously limiting their legitimate rights to freedom of expression and association, Pillay noted, and urged the Government to review its legislation, as well as its interpretation and application by the courts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe overly broad definitions in the July 2009 anti-terrorism law of Ethiopia result in criminalizing the exercise of fundamental human rights,\u201d Pillay said. \u201cTaken together, such laws have created a climate of intimidation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The human rights chief emphasized that the harsh sentences handed down to journalists and the excessive restrictions placed on human rights and non-governmental organizations are stifling dissent and undermining the freedom of opinion in Ethiopia.<\/p>\n<p>She also noted that, since 2009, there has been a dramatic reduction in the number of organizations working on human rights issues, particularly on civil and political rights, which she referred to as \u201cdeeply disturbing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLaws to combat terrorism must be consistent with the Government\u2019s human rights obligations under international conventions as well as the African Charter on Human and Peoples\u2019 Rights and other regional instruments to which Ethiopia is party,\u201d Pillay said, reiterating that the United Nations is ready to help Ethiopia review its legislation.<\/p>\n<p>BM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Navi Pillay concerned over journalists being jailed in Ethiopia. The top United Nations human rights official this week said she is \u201cseriously alarmed\u201d by the current climate of intimidation against journalists and human rights defenders in Ethiopia due to an overly broad interpretation of laws concerning terrorism and civil society&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-global-news","category-press-releases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.humanrightsleague.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.humanrightsleague.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.humanrightsleague.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanrightsleague.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanrightsleague.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanrightsleague.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.humanrightsleague.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanrightsleague.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanrightsleague.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}