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NAIROBI – A Reuters cameraman, Kumerra Gemechu, was arrested in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa on Thursday and will remain in custody for at least two weeks, his family said. He has not been charged.
The family was not given any reason for Thursday’s arrest and police did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters.
Kumerra, 38, has worked for Reuters as a freelance cameraman for a decade.
In a brief court hearing on Friday, where no lawyer was present, a judge ordered Kumerra’s detention for another 14 days to give the police time to investigate, the family said.
In a statement on Monday, the Reuters news agency strongly condemned Kumerra’s arrest. The arrest followed the beating of a Reuters photographer, Tiksa Negeri, by two Ethiopian federal police officers on December 16.
“Kumerra is part of a Reuters team reporting from Ethiopia in a fair, independent and impartial manner. Kumerra’s work demonstrates his professionalism and impartiality, and we are not aware of any basis for his arrest,” said editor-in-chief Stephen J. Adler said in the statement.
“Journalists must be allowed to report the news in the public interest without fear of harassment or harm, wherever they may be. We will not rest until Kumerra is released,” Adler said.
About 10 armed federal police officers arrived at Kumerra’s home in Addis Ababa on Thursday night and took him away handcuffed in front of his wife and three children, his wife Hawi Desalegn said. He added that his eldest daughter, who is 10 years old, clung to him screaming as he was taken away.
Police also seized Kumerra’s phone, a computer, USB sticks and papers, according to the family.
Journalists arrested
Kumerra’s arrest comes after government pressure on journalists from some international media outlets who have been covering the conflict in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, where government forces have been fighting the former ruling party. , the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
Kumerra covered the Tigray conflict, but Reuters could not determine whether his arrest was related to his work. Government officials did not respond to questions from Reuters about whether their coverage was at stake.
Ethiopia’s media authority, the Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority, accused Reuters and other international media outlets in a Nov. 23 statement on its Facebook page of “false” and “unbalanced” coverage of the fighting in Tigray.
“We stand by our reporting on the conflict in the Tigray region and will continue to report on Ethiopia with integrity, independence and without prejudice, as we do around the world,” Reuters said in a separate statement.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Kumerra’s arrest was “the latest example of how freedom of the press is rapidly eroding under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed after a brief hope of reform “.
When CPJ conducted its annual census of jailed journalists on December 1, there were at least seven journalists detained in Ethiopia for their work, CPJ said in a statement Monday.
Five of those arrests occurred after the fight broke out in Tigray on November 4, according to CPJ.
Thousands of people are believed to have died and some 950,000 have been displaced in the month-long conflict. The government says it is now in control of the troubled region, but strictly controls access and some areas still lack cell phone coverage.
The Ethiopian government, which the TPLF dominated for nearly three decades, frequently jailed critics, including politicians and journalists.
When Abiy came to power in 2018 after anti-government protests, he accelerated democratic reforms and oversaw the release of tens of thousands of political prisoners.
However, local and international rights groups have expressed concern over the arrests of thousands of people following outbreaks of deadly violence across the country.
The government has said those arrested were suspected of fomenting bloodshed.
“One of the main roles and responsibilities of the government is to ensure security and stability and that the rule of law prevails,” Billene Seyoum, the prime minister’s spokesman, told Reuters in August after more than 9,000 people were arrested after the Deadly clashes in the capital. and the surrounding Oromiya region.
