Five journalists stand accused of aiding terrorists in Ethiopia, charged under a recently enacted anti-terror law that provides for prison terms of up to 20 years for anyone who writes or publishes information that is seen to support or encourage terrorism, according to reports. The law was heavily criticized for its broad wording, which could be used to punish journalists who report on opposition groups that the government deems terrorists.

Ethiopia is but one example of a country that has enacted new anti-terror legislation in the years after Sep. 11th, and then used that legislation as a basis for arresting and imprisoning journalists.

“Suspicions have been confirmed that this law would be used to crack down on journalists who report on issues that are embarrassing or sensitive for the Ethiopian government,” said IPI Press Freedom Manager Anthony Mills.

On Tuesday 6 September, Ethiopian journalists Reyot Alemu and Wubshet Taye, and Swedish journalists Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye were all charged with terror-related crimes. Persson and Schibbye stand accused of aiding the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), which the Ethiopian government deemed a terrorist organization in June. In June, official spokespersons told Reuters that Alemu and Taye were suspected of planning to sabotage power and phone lines, and recruiting people to destabilize the country.

Elias Kifle, editor of the U.S.-based Ethiopian Review, also faces terror charges in absentia, according to Bloomberg.

Wubshet Taye of the Awramba Times and Reyot Alemu of Feteh newspaper were arrested on 19 and 21 June and have been held without bail since then, according to a report from Voice of America (VOA). They will remain in custody until 18 October as the state prepares its case against them, VOA said.

Persson and Schibbye, photojournalists for Kontinent, were captured in early July along with members of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), an insurgent group in the Ogaden region that the authorities deemed a terrorist organization in June. The ONLF members they were travelling with became embroiled in a fight with Ethiopian soldiers, leaving many of their number dead and the journalists “lightly wounded,” government spokespersons said at the time.

Communications minister Shimeles Kamal told Bloomberg that the pair “entered the country with a bunch of terrorists.” He asserted that they had taken weapons training and were not simply journalists.

Awramba Times chief editor Dawit Kabede defended his deputy editor, Taye, to VOA. “This is an act of sending the private media to the recycling bin. This is the approach of the government but it has nothing to do with terrorism,” he told VOA. “For this government, terrorism means being critical of its policies.”

Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega, who was one of several journalists jailed after elections in 2005, told IPI there is no way that Taye or Alemu are involved in terrorist activities. “Their arrest has more to do with calculated cultivation of fear. Fear is what dictatorships ultimately rely on to survive. And with the Arab spring dominating the headlines, fear is losing the potency of yesteryear. No surprise then that the EPRDF, Ethiopia’s ruling party, is resorting to the terrorism law to bring back the old magic—Fear!”