Reporter Editor reports its Editor's jail term

Editor of The Reporter spends five days in Gondar prison, still in detention
Wednesday, 27 August 2008
Bail denied
By A Staff Reporter

Editor in chief of Reporter Amharic and The Reporter English newspapers, Amare Aregawi has spent six days in a prison in Gondar some 700 kilometers from the capital, and still remains in detention as he has been denied bail.

Amare was arrested from his office in Addis Ababa on the afternoon of Friday August 22, by police officers from Gondar. On Friday he was first taken to a Woreda police station here in Addis, and then transferred to the Addis Ababa Police Station where he spent the night.

On Saturday, Amare was driven to Gondar in a vehicle owned by Dashen Brewery. On arrival he was taken to the Sixth police Station in Gondar where he still remains.

Put in custody of Gondar police on Saturday, Amare was brought before the investigating officer on Monday, according to our reporter at the area.

The reason for his arrest and detention is reports carried by the Amharic Reporter regarding the labor dispute in the Dashen Brewery where some seventy employees’ contract of employment was terminated.

On Monday, Amare appeared before the Gondar Court presided by Judge Zewditu Mengesha and which was asked to remand Amare to enable investigations to be completed.

Amare however, told the Court that his civil as well as professional rights had been violated and requested to be granted bail. He was told that in order to be granted bail he had to submit his request in writing, which he did.

The Court there after called upon the prosecutor for comments and recommendations.
On Tuesday, Prosecutor Aschal Yeshanew told the Court that she needed to look into further details and requested that bail be denied, which the Court accepted.

Amare will remain in detention until the next pre-trial hearing on Monday September 1, according to our reporter.

On July 20, Reporter published a story relating to the criticism by the Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions (CETU), directed at the brewery.

CETU president Kasahun Folo had said then that it was not appropriate that the management had dissolved the trade union in the organization, and that it was illegal that the chairman and deputy of the union were suspended from their positions.

Kasahun, who accused the management of the brewery of repeatedly dissolving labor unions there, also slammed the regional Labor and Social Affairs Bureau of illegally participating in the disbanding of the already existing trade union. He said this was outside the mandate of the bureau.

President of the federation of trade unions of food, beverages and tobacco enterprises, Gebremichael Gebrelibanos on his part said that a committee comprised of members of federations of trade unions and CETU had had face to face talks with the management of the brewery. But, he added, the meetings brought forth no solution to the problems.

He said that he had also informed in writing, the board chairperson of the brewery Bereket Simon, who also is the prime minister’s senior advisor on public relations.


Attempts to balance the story by obtaining the statement of the general manager of the brewery, Berhanu Admasu were not successful as he told the reporter writing the story that he was not willing to give any statement to the Reporter newspaper.

Prior to July 20 the paper also published on May 25, a piece detailing the complaints of the brewery’s employees who were fired in breach of the company regulation.

The reporter, who wrote the story, Teshome Niku, was arrested from his office in Addis Ababa and taken to Gondar where he appeared before Court. He was released on bond after having been required to enter to an undertaking in the sum of 300 birr. He gave the undertaking.

Legal experts who gave their opinion regarding Amare’s arrest said: “This matter is outside the jurisdiction of the regional government, since according to both the previous and the new press law, ‘a press whose dissemination extends beyond the confines of a region, as opposed to a press whose dissemination is confined within the limits of a region is under the jurisdiction of the federal government.’” This, they said, applies to both being registered and licensed, and in matters of criminal investigation.

The experts added that according to the new press law, any charge filed against a journalist or crimes committed by a media, do not entail the detention of the journalist unless it has been approved by the country’s Attorney General.

The provision in Article 54 of the Criminal Code also state, according to the experts, that a warrant of arrest shall only be issued where the attendance of the person before the Court is absolutely necessary and can not be otherwise obtained.

These same experts argue that since the alleged crime was committed through what was published in the newspaper, there is no justification or circumstance that necessitates the arrest of the editor or the journalist.