Complying to pleas by government representatives, the Supreme Court
had summoned four publishing houses – Sisay,Zekarias,Fasil and Serkalem
publishing houses – to appear before it’s criminal bench on
December 4 2009.The EPRDF led government had appealed a Federal court
ruling which established that the publishing houses had been pardoned
by the President in accordance with the law and the public
pronouncements of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in 2007, despite the
stringent claim by the government to the contrary. The Supreme Court
today overturned the High Court ruling by agreeing with the
government’s insistence that the pardon does not apply to the
publishing houses.
The High Court that ruled against the government is the very court
that imposed the fines in the first place. The next step is for the
High Court to “freeze all liquid and fixed assets” of the defendants
as requested by the government. In its four-page petition to the
Supreme Court, the Ministry of Finance and Development, which is
representing the government, had specified that it is acting at the
behest of the Ministry of Justice.
This ruling, two and a half months short of the elections, is expected
to have adverse effect on the nation’s limited political newspapers
that are already working under a severely restricted environment.
Thirteen newspapers, the entire genre of Ethiopia’s free press, were
closed down in the immediate aftermath of the post election riots in
2005; and to this date, incredibly, none have returned despite the
release of all journalists by pardon (which the government is now
denying) in 2007.
We take this opportunity to call on the EPRDF government to respect
our constitutional right to freedom of expression and lift its illegal
restriction against granting us press licenses.
