Who runs DW Amharic: Bereket or Schadomsky?

Bereket Simon

Ludger Schadomsky (DW)

In an open letter dated January 11, 2012, Ludger Schadomsky, editor-in-chief of Deutsche Welle (DW) Amharic, wrote:

Dear [Ethiomedia] Editor,

“A number of articles on Ethiomedia allege self-censorship at DW Amharic…DW is bowing to pressure from the Ethiopian government, in particular from Minister of Government Communications Bereket Simon…

Such allegations have no foundation whatsoever. I’d like to go on record as saying that we at DW Amharic neither bow to pressure from the government of Ethiopia, nor give in to the increasingly outrageous demands by radicalized opposition figures and organizations.” — Ludger Schadomsky, Editor-in-Chief, DW Amharic (Read Open Letter to Ethiomedia.com).

But in 2011, Ludger Schadomsky circulated a memo to DW Staff, warning them not to correspond with Ethiomedia.com and other pro-democracy websites so that DW would stay out of trouble with Bereket Simon.

Ethiomedia invites Schadomsky to explain the content of his memo.

In the meantime, readers are invited to see for themselves whether DW Amharic has remained firm to its stated guidelines, or has been bowing to the pressure of one Bereket Simon, the spokesperson of the Meles Zenawi regime, which has been in power since 1991 and is often denounced by human rights organizations as one of the most brutal regimes in Africa.