According to information provided to the International Press Institute (IPI), journalists reporting on violent street clashes in Addis Ababa between police and students protesting over the 15 May parliamentary elections have come under increased pressure from the authorities.

On 7 June, the Information Ministry revoked the accreditation of five Ethiopian journalists, Taddesse Engidaw and Assegdech Yiberta of Deutsche Welle and Helen Mohammed, Temam Aman and Bereket Teklu of Voice of America (VOA), who were accused of filing “unbalanced reports” on the elections. IPI understands that the Information Ministry warned that the journalists could face legal action if they continued reporting and that similar action would be taken against other journalists who file false or unbalanced reports.

The five journalists, who are Ethiopian citizens and work in local languages, had reported extensively on the elections and the violent street protests in Addis Ababa that followed accusations that the ruling party was guilty of electoral fraud. The clashes have left at least 22 people dead, independent observers say.

This is not the first case of harassment of journalists covering the elections and their aftermath.

On 2 June, officials summoned at least six journalists from the private newspapers Abay, Addis Zena, Menilik and Netsanet to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in Addis Ababa. The journalists were detained and questioned for several hours about articles they published during the elections before being released without charge.

“IPI strongly condemns the Ethiopian government’s attempts to harass and censor journalists reporting on the elections and the ensuing street clashes,” Johann P. Fritz, Director of IPI, said. “We urge the authorities to restore the accreditation of the five journalists from Deutsche Welle and Voice of America and to uphold everyone’s right to ‘seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers’, as provided for in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

“We further urge the Ethiopian government to ensure that journalists covering events in Ethiopia are allowed to exercise their profession without fear of harassment or intimidation,” Fritz said.