“Because of the world’s indifference, we are reduced to just watching, appalled and powerless, as the authorities continue to pick off journalists who have been unable to flee the reign of terror in Asmara,” Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said.

The Paris-based group said Fathia Khaled, a presenter on state-owned Eri-TV’s Arabic service, was arrested earlier this month and taken to a military camp in the northwest.

“How much longer will we have to continue adding names to the list of people imprisoned by President Isaias Afwerki’s government?” it added in a statement sent to media.

Eritrea, which won independence from Ethiopia in 1993, routinely rejects rights criticisms from foreign-based groups, saying the world has long been prejudiced against it due to favouritism towards regional power Addis Ababa.

Information Minister Ali Abdu told Reuters earlier this month the government would not respond to “each stupid comment” by groups like RSF. He could not immediately be reached for comment on Khaled’s case.

Eritrea’s former rebel movement-turned-government prides itself on self-reliance and has had increasingly fractious relations with the United Nations and Western countries in the last several years.

With no independent media and frequent accusations of harassment of journalists, Eritrea is consistently ranked among the world’s top violators of press freedom by rights groups, along with the likes of China, Cuba and Ethiopia.

RSF said Khaled had been re-arrested after being among nine journalists held during a late 2006 crackdown.

Then, they were kept incommunicado for several weeks and housed in an underground prison before being “beaten until they gave the passwords to their email accounts,” RSF said.

“After being released on bail, they were followed, their phones were tapped, they were forced to go back to work and they were expressly forbidden to leave Asmara.” (Reuters)