The Voice of
America (VOA) has been accused of censoring itself and suspending its Horn of
Africa Chief, David Arnold, over fallout with the Ethiopian government. The
suspension of Mr. Arnold was directly related to his comments in a news report
that was broadcast on VOA Amharic service on June 23rd, informed
sources told Addis Voice.
Mr. Arnold
was part of a seven-member delegation headed by three Board of Broadcasting
Governors (BBG), Susan McCue, Dana Perino, and
Michael Meehan, who met officials in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Southern Sudan from
June 21 to June 28. BBG, an agency of the US government, oversees all of its
civilian international broadcasts in 59 languages to an estimated weekly
audience of 165 million people across the world.
Arnold had
revealed that the Ethiopian government demanded VOA to deny platform to its
vocal critics as a precondition to cooperate with VOA. The blacklist,
drawn up by the Government Communication Affairs Minister, Bereket Simon, included Prof. Pawlos Milkeas, Prof. BeyenePetros, Dr. MereraGudina, GetachewMetaferia, Dr. BerhanuNega, GirmaMogess,
former Minister of Defense SeyeAbraha
and the Eritrean Minister of Information, Ali Abdou.
“The list goes on,” Arnold told VOA Amharic.
He had said
that the mission of the BBG delegation was “to make sure that they address some
of the issues in Ethiopia concerning free press because for many years the
government has objected to some of our broadcasts.” He also pointed out that
the BBG governors discussed with Ethiopian officials the constant jamming of
Voice of America transmissions in Amharic, Oromiffa
and Tigrigna.
In what
appears to be an unprecedented move in VOA’s history, bosses ordered the removal
of the audio as well as text files of the news report in question from VOA’s
website and archive pages in less than 24 hours after Ethiopian officials
lodged complaints about the report on “confidential” matters, it was learn.
It emerged
that the meeting between the BBG delegation and Ethiopian government officials
was fraught with problems and tension as Mr. Simon and his cohorts have
reportedly launched a scathing attack against the media organization in a
41-page long litany of complaints about VOA broadcasts.
Mr. Simon was
said to have complained that the June 23rd report ruined ongoing
talks. He threatened to cancel further talks with the delegation and cease any
future cooperation. Before the VOA chief was suspended, he was reportedly
admonished for expressing critical views and airing sensitive information
without seeking clearance from the delegation.
In an email
sent to Addis Voice, VOA’s Director of Public Relations, David Borgida denied allegations of censorship. “VOA
always strives to be accurate in its reporting. That includes material on our
websites. There was a misinterpretation of what went on during a recent meeting
between Ethiopian government officials and visiting BBG Governors, and so the
recent item you cite, which appeared on the website of the VOA Amharic service,
was taken down.”
Asked to
explain why VOA did not publicly issue corrections instead of deleting the
whole content, Mr. Borgida declined to comment.
Addis Voice
also asked why the Horn of Africa chief was suspended. “”We do not comment
publicly on personnel matters,” he said.
When I
pressed Borgida to explain if the “personal matter”
included his comments contained in the news report in question, Borgida said that VOA would not give any further statements
on this matter.
But Addis
Voice has confirmed from two reliable sources that VOA bosses were not pleased
with Arnold’s comments on sensitive issues that they felt needed clearance.
The renowned
Ethiopian artiste TamagneBeyene
is one of first people to notice the removal of all the contents of the June 23rd
VOA Amharic broadcast from the online archive page. He says that the measure
taken by VOA is unjustifiable and a pure act of censorship.
Tamagn asked VOA to come out of the closet
and tell its listeners the truth why the news was deleted and a highly
experienced staff member was suspended for reporting the truth.
“This is a
classic case of censorship and shooting the messenger. If this is not
censorship, what else can VOA call it?” he asked.
“This case of
suspension and censorship has shocked so many people at VOA. Some people are
wondering how a professional journalist like Arnold with over three decades of
experience can be suspended and censored to assuage the anger of a dictatorial
regime in Ethiopia,” said one of the sources who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
“Arnold only
reported the truth accurately. I am personally confused to witness politics
overriding the First Amendment, which is as one of the pillars of the
Constitution of the United States,” the source added.
“The Minister
[Bereket Simon] is willing to consider any new
initiatives but he is going to wait to see if we change the way we broadcast,”
Arnold had said.
Arnold had
dismissed the demand as contrary to the mission of VOA and basic principles of
free press. According to him, Simon, not only complained about the contents of
VOA broadcasts but also pointed out that the Ethiopian government had problems
with some of the journalists working for VOA. During the 2005 election
turmoil in Ethiopia, the government charged five VOA journalists, along with
local journalists and opposition leaders, with high treason. The charges were
dropped in the course of the trial under pressure from the U.S. government.
During their
visit, the delegation posted pictures and brief accounts of their experience on
a dedicated blog, VOA on the Road Africa. In Ethiopia, the delegation
that included four VOA staffers including the English to Africa Chief, Sonya
Laurence Green, talked to senior Ethiopian government officials on issues related
to the persistent jamming of VOA its transmissions and press freedom
violations.
AlemayehuGebremariam,
a constitutional law attorney and professor of political science at California
State University, San Bernardino, says: “Disclosure of a few names from
an illegal list of names prepared by a foreign government to be blacklisted by
the VOA presents no basis for legal or administrative action against him.
“Telling the
truth in a news broadcast is not a crime. That is what Mr. Arnold has done.
Journalists are censured and punished for reporting the truth in places like
Iran and Ethiopia,” he noted.
Prof. Gebremariam further pointed out that the First Amendment
guaranteed American citizens and inhabitants of the U.S. the absolute right to
publicly criticize, denounce, condemn and berate any government institution or
leader with impunity.
He said:
“Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press,
which simply means that no government official or institution has the power to
restrict, censor, suppress, restrain, muzzle or blackball any American citizen
or inhabitant of the U.S. from exercising their right to free speech or
restrain the independent press from performing its institutional functions.”
In March
2010, Prime Minister MelesZenawi
publicly threatened to jam VOA. “We have been convinced for many years that in
many respects, the VOA Amharic Service has copied the worst practices of radio
stations such as Radio Mille Collines of Rwanda in
its wanton disregard of minimum ethics of journalism and engaging in
destabilizing propaganda,” Zenawi told reporters in
Addis Ababa.
“We have to
know before we make the decision to jam, whether we have the capacity to do it.
But I assure you if they assure me at some future date that they have the
capacity to jam it, I will give them the clear guideline to jam it,” he added.
The
government of Ethiopia has now developed a capacity to jam shortwave and
satellite TV broadcasts. A few weeks ago, the Ethiopian Satellite Television
issued a statement urging the government of China to stop providing technology
and technical support that has enabled the Meles
regime to jam its transmissions to Ethiopia.
In October
2010, Human Rights Watch released a special report, Development Without Freedom: How Aid Underwrites Repressions in
Ethiopia, that accused western governments of complicity in repressions by
turning a blind eye to the fact that “development aid flows through, and
directly supports, a virtual one-party state with a deplorable human rights
record.”
The Meles regime, which is a key U.S. ally in the Horn of
Africa, receives over 3 billion dollars in aid annually from Western donors.
One-third of the money comes from the coffers of the U.S. treasury in the form
of relief and development aid.
