Ethiopia’s civil war has been bad news for press freedom

a crime make you an accomplice to it? If the crime is rebellion in Ethiopia, then the answer is yes. That, at least, appears to have been the logic of Ethiopian officials when they arrested Amir Aman, a journalist working for the Associated Press, an American news agency, last year. Amir had interviewed members of the Oromo Liberation Army. For this he spent 125 days behind bars. State television accused him and his colleagues of “promoting” terrorists. If found guilty they could face 15 years in prison. Just a few years ago Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s prime minister, seemed to be ushering in a more hopeful era for journalists in a country notorious for ill-treating them. In 2019, a year after he took office, Abiy boasted that there were no reporters behind bars for the first time in over a decade. He hosted World Press Freedom Day and declared an “unwavering commitment” to free expression. He lifted blocks on hundreds of websites and television channels. A blossoming of new media outlets followed. Yet last year Ethiopia was ranked among the worst jailers of journalists in Africa, trumped only by Egypt and Eritrea, the gulag state next door.