In
January 2019, Co-Founder of the Ethiopian Institute for Leadership,
Communication and Organisation (EILCO), Bekele Woyecha, and the Director of
International Observatory for Human Rights (IOHR), Valerie Peay, met for lunch
to discuss how they can work together. It was to their good fortune and the
amazing transformation happening in Ethiopia, under the new administration of
Dr. Abiy Ahmed, which led to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) announcing that the annual World Press Freedom
Day 2019 (WPFD 2019) will be held in Addis Ababa on May 1 – 3. The main event
of World Press Freedom Day was co-hosted by UNESCO, African Union (AU) and the
Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia with close to a thousand journalists
world-wide descending on the capital of Ethiopia for a three day conference
held at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and AU buildings. As
Valerie Peay commented at the reception for the launch of the EILCO-IOHR joint
initiative for WPFD 2019, at the Ethiopian Embassy in London, “the Worlds eyes
are on Ethiopia” and Bekele Woyecha stated “Ethiopia is open for business”
.❝Ethiopia is OPEN. Visit Ethiopia. Invest in Ethiopia. Write about #Ethiopia❞ ~ @BekeleWoyecha, co-founder of @EILCO1
— Ethiopian Embassy UK | #EthiopiaInUK 🇪🇹🇬🇧 (@EthioEmbassyUK) April 24, 2019
EILCO will host a panel discussion at the #WorldPressFreedomDay conference, as well as a series of lectures at @AddisAbabaUnive
📺: https://t.co/8mlQdzwV8I pic.twitter.com/i3YE43b3Pq
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| Co-Founder of EILCO, Bekele Woyecha, tells the audience the positive changes happening in Ethiopia that allowed for World Press Freedom Day 2019 to be hosted in Addis Ababa. |
EILCO
was founded by four Britons of Ethiopian Origin, Bekele Woyecha, Zelalem
Getahun, Ermias Kebede and Sirgut Yadeta. Their main aim is to transfer their
combined experience of working in Civil Society, Civil Service and Private
Sector to their country of birth, Ethiopia. IOHR is a human rights advocacy and
action organisation based in the UK with a global reach. IOHR has worked
closely with supporting, defending and facilitating journalists. With the
experience and contacts of EILCO with journalists in Ethiopia and more
generally East Africa, a partnership seemed the natural course of action. Before travelling to Ethiopia EILCO and IOHR organised a cocktail, which was attended by members of press in the UK, officials from the Foreign Office and the ambassador of Ethiopia to the UK. Here is a prelude written by IOHR. EILCO
and IOHR travelled to Addis Ababa to deliver a seminar at Addis Ababa
University School of Journalism and a panel discussion at the World Press
Freedom Day. As well as holding discussions with the British Embassy in
Ethiopia, exploring areas of mutual interest with the Ambassador, Alistair
McPhail.
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| Addis Ababa University students from the School of Journalism listen to experienced journalists Woubshet Taye, Befekadu Hailu and others about responsible journalism, misinformation and freedom of expression. |
The
EILCO-IOHR Panel Discussion took place on Day One of World Press Freedom Day
2019 at the ECA. The discussion was entitled ‘The Need for UN, International
and Local protection mechanisms for journalists: First hand experiences of the
consequences of lack of such mechanism’. Opening remarks were provided by
Bekele Woyecha, co-founder of EILCO. The
panel discussion looked at three elements to the question of mechanisms to
protect journalists: Local, Regional and International. On the Panel we had
Befekadu Hailu, Writer, Blogger and Democracy activist; Woubshet Taye, Editor-in-Chief of Gulale Post magazine; Ruth
Nesoba, Deployments Editor at the BBC World Service; Sirgut Yadeta,
Communications Expert with major UK companies and co-founder of EILCO, Valerie
Peay, Director of IOHR; and Alastair King-Smith, Coordinator for Global
Campaign on Media Freedom at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). The
discussions were moderated by Trish Lynch, former CNN and Sky News reporter and
anchor of IOHR TV.
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| The EILCO-IOHR panel discussion was summarised by co-founder of EILCO, Dr. Ermias Kebede (far right). The discussion centred on the need for protection of journalists at a local, regional and international level. |
The
discussion demonstrated the local need for protection for journalist through
the first-hand experience of mistreatment, abuse and imprisonment of Woubshet
Taye, served seven years of a fourteen year terrorism sentence, and Befekadu
Hailu, imprisoned four times without charge. Both emphasised the positive
trajectory of the current Ethiopian Government on respecting press freedom.
Woubshet stated that the three arms of Government, Legislative, Judiciary and
Executive should ensure that the law to protect journalism is strengthened
whilst also ensuring a strong and independent institution to support
journalists. Befekadu highlighted the need for unity amongst journalists,
proper mechanism for financial aid to legal challenges and he stated that
during his ordeal he promised himself that “at no point will I ever compromise
my freedom of expression”.
Ruth
Nesoba gave us the regional perspective and the context of the women
journalist, she pointed out that Women face challenges in protection,
perception and personal life in field reporting. Whilst recognising the
advancements in freedom of press in Ethiopia, Ruth warned that support for
journalists must not be reversed and that a critical view of new media
legislation must continue.
Sirgut
Yadeta, Alastair King-Smith and Valerie Peay provided the need for an
international perspective to protecting journalists. Sirgut is an experienced
communications expert in the UK and is of Ethiopian origin. She commented
“there were no laws protecting journalists in Ethiopia and I was very nervous
in working here”. However, she recognised that the change in atmosphere has
encouraged her to move back and work in Ethiopia. Sirgut called for a Code of
Conduct to govern the press in Ethiopia through a self-regulating mechanism.
Alastair called for “Governments to listen more”, to identify what has been
happening and to continue the positive changes in place. He told the conference
that the UK will be hosting a global campaign for Free Media, an initiative
being led by the UK Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, partnering with the
Canadian Government. Valerie Peay presented the case for IOHR explaining they
were an organisation based on advocacy and action. IOHR called for a UN special
envoy for the protection of journalists and better local, regional and
international protection.
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| The EILCO-IOHR panel discussion took place at ECA, Addis Ababa on 1st May 2019 featuring Valerie Peay, Sirgut Yadeta, Befekadu Hailu, Ruth Nesoba, Trish Lynch (moderator), Woubshet Taye and Alastair King-Smith (L-R) |
Day
2 and 3 of the World Press Freedom Day were held at the AU buildings, with the
capacity to hold more attendees. We were told that this event was a record
breaker for UNESCO on attendance. Day 2 began with some lively Ethiopian
traditional dancing from the Oromia region. We had a panel discussion, in which
a minutes silence for the victims of the Yemeni civil war and for
Eritrean-Swedish journalist Dawit Isaak was called for by Yemeni-Swedish
journalist, Afrah Nasser. This was followed by speeches from Director-General
of UNESO, H.E. Audrey Azoulay, President of Ethiopia, H.E. Sahle-Work Zewde and
UK Foreign Secretary, H.E. Jeremy Hunt. A keynote speech was also delivered by
the Editor-in-Chief, Tsedale Lemma. The evening of Day 2 turned out to be the
highlight of the evening, EILCO and IOHR attended the invite-only gala dinner
at Sheraton Addis Luxury Collections, where the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Dr.
Abiy Ahmed, gave a speech on Press Freedom in Ethiopia and accepted his award
for UNESCO Person of Peace. EILCO and IOHR were able to get a few words with
the Prime Minister, as well as Foreign Minister, Gedu Andargachew and Chief
Justice, Meaza Ashenafi
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| EILCO founders with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed |
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| Bekele Woyecha facilitating UNESCO session |
PS: This news was originally posted on the EILCO webbite in May 2019.
Hence it is only a repost.
