Tell the Truth, Get Stuck in Limbo
An open letter on the case of Ethiopian journalist Getiye Yalew
My colleague Jemal Countess went all the way to Uganda to get the stories of Ethiopian journalists who chose to escape into exile. Some had been imprisoned and tortured. And you can find out more about their ordeals in this interview Jemal did with host Salome Mulugeta for Africa World TV.
It was about a month ago that Jemal made that appearance. I am guessing most of the Ethiopians are still there, still waiting for the world to give them the attention they deserve. So, because I was asked to help by one of my diaspora contacts, I thought it worthwhile to share a letter I’ve drafted for reporter Getiye Yalew. In writing about his case, I hope I can state something meaningful about the situation of all the Ethiopian exiles.
As I’ve mentioned in this column before, week after week goes by, and I am approached by Ethiopians of different professions but who all share the same plight: they need to flee their country and find safe harbor elsewhere. Otherwise, their government will throw them in a cell, torture them, and possibly kill them. I can do nothing more than suggest to each one that they get a good immigration lawyer, and sometimes I make a noise about their case here. Getiye Yalew certainly deserves sanctuary.
Getiye told me through text messages that there’s a court order that authorizes “federal police to arrest me at any time and in any place, with the instruction to present me before the court.” Instead of waiting around to get snatched up and tossed in a cell again, he understandably left Ethiopia.
The Abiy government claims he committed crimes against the State during a political discussion broadcast on RAS Media’s YouTube channel. For one, he supposedly “opposed the constitution and the constitutional order.” It also claims he “encouraged civil unrest with the intention of overthrowing the government” and “called for mass protests and promoted the idea that power should lie in the hands of the people, not a select group of officials.”
“These statements, cited directly from the government’s charge sheet written in Amharic,” Getiye explains, “are being used as evidence that I aimed to dismantle both the federal and regional governments. However, my political commentary was centered around expressing the will of the people. I criticized the existing governmental system, constitutional flaws, and widespread corruption among officials. These accusations, therefore, appear to be an attack on freedom of speech and freedom of the press — not genuine criminal offenses.”
And just to twist the knife more, he’s been accused of inciting hatred towards the Oromo people. “In my commentary, however, I simply advocated for fair ethnic representation within the national army,” says Getiye. “I never engaged in ethnic scorn or incitement. My statements were rooted in the pursuit of equity, not hate.”
On top of all that, he’s also accused of “promoting disobedience within the national defense forces,” supporting Fano, the militia fighting on behalf of endangered Amhara communities, and “disseminating what the government refers to as ‘confusing’ information.”
(A personal aside here: if the Ethiopian government wants to prosecute those who disseminate confusing information, it better go round up half its cabinet and a very large portion of its officials!)
Getiye insists that he “merely criticized the disproportionate ethnic composition of the national army, emphasizing the dominance of one group. This was a factual critique aimed at fostering inclusivity and balance — not disobedience or instability.”
To any reasonable adult, be they Ethiopian or from another part of Africa or European, a journalist should have the right to provide commentary. Most progressive societies have prohibitions against incitement and hate speech, but the onus is and always should be on the state to make its case. The state should be burdened with proving their charges against the individual — and not dump the accused down a hole while it takes its time getting around to this chore.
But Ethiopia is now a land where the state commits heinous acts of ethnic cleansing and merrily tries to dismantle what makes the nation culturally rich and unique. The criminals run the courts then declare each voice of conscience a pariah.
I have always found the motto, “Journalism is not a crime,” incredibly insipid, especially because it was invoked by the smiling ghouls who demonized Ethiopia supporters during the war with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. A slogan may work for a meme, but it’s not an argument, and I saw plenty of journalism in 2021 — mainly from white reporters with Western oulets — that lied, incited hate, manipulated the facts, and sometimes brazenly committed libel.
“Journalism is not a crime” says nothing, really. It doesn’t speak to what good journalists do and how they end up pissing off the cruel and powerful. It presumes that garden variety reportage is the offense. But it’s not. It’s when reporters go beyond the basics of their craft and surpass the standards, putting a complex picture forward because they know the happy, simplistic one by the powerful is a mirage, a lie.
This is why Getiye is in Uganda right now. This is why the others are in Uganda right now. They didn’t just do their jobs. They excelled at them.
You can learn more specifics about his case here.
But I wonder… How many others don’t make it out to Uganda or Kenya?
Here then is my letter of support.
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
I am writing on behalf of Getiye Yalew, an Ethiopian journalist who has been forced to leave his homeland because of repeated arrests, harassment, and threats by the government of Abiy Ahmed and authorities in the Oromo regional state.
A few words of explanation are in order about my own interest in Mr. Getiye’s case. I have written about Ethiopian history and current affairs for more than a decade. Because of my books, Prevail and The Gifts of Africa, as well as my independent reporting in the field on the recent war between the Abiy regime and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, I have a considerable network of contacts among intellectual and political figures both within Ethiopia and Ethiopian diaspora communities around the world. And I, of course, have monitored the evolving dynamics.
I can assure whoever reads this letter that an ethnic cleansing of the Amhara people is being perpetrated by the Ethiopian federal government with the enthusiastic assistance of Oromo ethno-nationalists and other regional players. I have reported on this, as have a small collection of committed, conscientious journalists, and it is only recently that more mainstream media outlets in the West have begun to pay attention. This does not, however, make the plight of the Amhara any less urgent.
At the same time, the Abiy regime has increasingly cracked down on free speech, rule of law, and especially cultural institutions which represent a unified, multi-ethnic Ethiopia. He and his accomplices in persecution have made a particular target for their spite of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, one of the longest, most beloved institutions in the country. The hate campaign has targeted as well other ethnic minorities, and the government has enacted a strategy of cruel neglect in the Afar region alternating with attacks by its proxies on the Afar people.
Because of this worsening situation, I have been approached — sometimes several times a month — by Ethiopians who are looking for asylum and need help.
Mr. Getiye Yalew’s case is not unique, but it is outstanding in its example of a journalist of great integrity whose only reward has been threats and intimidation. Mr. Getiye and I had brief communications after he was recommended to me by a leading member of an Ethiopia diaspora group, and I was greatly impressed with his record of achievement. But he has paid dearly for his efforts. He has been repeatedly imprisoned, sometimes for months at a time, for doing his job as a reporter. He has covered a war that the West has almost completely ignored, the current struggle between the Abiy government and soldiers of Fano, the only substantial resistance that can help prevent the wave of massacres of Amhara communities. It is one thing to be a war correspondent in a conflict that gets nightly reportage on Western TV, like Ukraine and Gaza. It is quite another to report on a war of massive significance, but one which still doesn’t get the attention from the world that it deserves. It requires a fidelity to truth above all.
Mr. Getiye shows that commitment.
Getiye Yalew does more than simply chronicle the facts in his stories; he offers insights and challenges the thinking of the state. To me, such conduct represents a quality more valuable than the reflexive worship in North America and Europe of so-called “objectivity” in journalism. This kind of journalism summons the heart and provokes the mind to consider new ideas and approaches.
But Mr. Getiye, like several other Ethiopian journalists forced to flee their homes, now languishes in Kampala and has been there since late July. As a “guest” of the Ugandan government, his status is precarious at best. He has every right to expect assistance from Western administrations that repeatedly demand African countries live up to their standards of governance and democracy while they keep their doors closed more often than open.
I ask that his case be promoted by organizations that stand for human rights and the safety of journalists.
I ask that his asylum application be properly considered, and indeed, granted by the country he chooses to make his new home.
As one of your new citizens, you will gain an educated, conscientious individual who would be a credit to the intellectual landscape of your nation.
I am at the disposal of any human rights organization or immigration authority which seeks to consult me on more specifics about the situation in Ethiopia, and I would be happy to put them in touch with Ethiopian diaspora leaders who can naturally provide more detailed and nuanced responses than I can.
Best regards,
Jeff Pearce
