has seen a surge in detentions of journalists in recent months. Abdulsemed Mohamed, who hosted a business program on the privately-owned Ahadu Radio, disappeared on August 11 in the capital, Addis Ababa.
His wife, Emebet Buta, said: “The police never gave us an answer, and said they would put together a team to look for him.”
Yonas Amare, a senior editor at The Reporter newspaper, was “abducted by a group of masked individuals” on August 13 from his home in the city, his employer said.
“After the arrests of both journalists, our organization monitored the case with the families and other media organizations. Both had been missing for over 10 days,” Mersha Tiruneh, spokesperson for the Ethiopian Mass Media Professionals Association, told DW.
The men have since been released, according to a reportin the Ethiopia Observer, but neither they nor Ethiopian authorities have commented on their detention.
Sadibou Marong from media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the situation for journalists, and civilians connected to journalists, in Ethiopia is “quite awful and problematic.”
“Arbitrarily arresting journalists and keeping them incommunicado shows how far Ethiopian authorities might go in the repression against journalists,” Marong told DW.
In 2024, six Ethiopian journalists were behind bars according to data from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). One of them, Yeshihasab Abere, was released in January 2025. In March, seven journalists from the privately-owned Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation were detained, though all have reportedly been freed. Two are awaiting trial on charges of dissemination of hateful disinformation.
The CPJ’s Angela Quintal said that “media and anti-terror laws continue to be weaponized against journalists, internet shutdowns are used to silence reporting and arbitrary arrests have become routine.”
Journalists have been accused of promoting terrorism, hate speech, disseminating false information or when reporting on conflict. In 2023, 15 foreign TV channels were suspended, according to RSF. The state has also gradually introduced fees that create barriers to broadcasting in Ethiopia.
Neither the spokesperson for Prime Minister Abiy, Billene Seyoum, nor the Ethiopian Government Communication Office, had replied to DW’s request for comment at the time of publication.
Press freedom under pressure
Ethiopia is an East African giant, with of population of around 130 million people. But the country ranks 145th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2025 press freedom index, which cites “widespread self-censorship.”
The country also has a reputation for jailing journalists — according to the CPJ, Ethiopia has jailed 30 journalists since 2018. This is despite initial optimism that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who came to power that year, would reform the country’s previously tightly controlled media landscape.
The government made it easier to acquire broadcasting licenses, decriminalized defamation and put in place measures to protect journalistic sources. It also allowed greater freedom and say for privately-owned media leaders.
But even then, Ethiopian authorities were accused of circumventing freedom of speech laws, especially when civil war between government and
An amendment to the nation’s 2021 media law in April 2025 triggered more criticism from rights groups. The change increases government control over the regulatory Ethiopian Media Authority (EMA), which issues sanctions against news outlets that violate press ethics, including revoking their licenses.
Media personalities abroad also targeted
In mid-August, the Ethiopia Observer reported that an Ethiopian delegation to France, which included Prime Minster Abiy Ahmed, asked France to assist in the “extradition” of two Ethiopian journalists based there who were accused of being critical of the government.
The CPJ’s Quintal told DW that Abebe Bayu and Yayesew Shimelis were “subjected to repeated detention in Ethiopia before their exile.”
“Such transnational repression highlights the government’s overreach beyond its borders to muzzle dissenting voices, in direct contravention of Ethiopia’s obligations under international human rights law,” she added.
There have been reports of similar efforts targeting critical voices in other European Union countries, but also South Africa, Kenya and Uganda.
“In safer countries, they have the possibility to reinvent themselves. The Ethiopian diaspora constitutes a very big group, and that group most of the time sticks to their independence, they stick to their freedoms. And there is a possibility they might influence Ethiopians from abroad,” said Marong, explaining how authorities have justified efforts to track Ethiopian media professionals in other countries.
“This is something we have seen recently, and it’s an extraordinarily bad trend,” he added.
2026 election adds to press freedom concerns
Ethiopia is at a critical juncture. The 2022 ended fighting between the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) and the in a war that However, a cloudy status of currently exists in Tigray, because the ruling TPLF has been beset by infighting and fallout between political leaders.
The country is also heading toward a general election, set for June 2026. Watchdogs fear that any gains in will be reversed as Addis Ababa seeks to control the narrative.
“Dissenting voices are still tracked, and surveillance is also carried out on journalists entering Ethiopia. That trend will not be stopped,” said Marong. “There is a general move of controlling the narrative, trying to occupy the civic and the public media space with their own narrative.”
Edited by: Keith Walker
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