ADDIS ABABA: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) was relieved to learn the Ethiopian government has pardoned Swedish journalists Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye on Monday. “We welcome the government's decision and look forward to the prompt release of Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye," said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. “However, journalists should never be jailed for legitimate newsgathering. Authorities ought to show tolerance for independent reporting and release the remaining six journalists imprisoned." Since 2011, the government of Ethiopia has convicted 11 independent journalists and bloggers under a sweeping antiterrorism law. Ethiopian authorities arrested Persson and Schibbye in July 2011 and sentenced them to 11 years in prison for allegedly supporting terrorism and entering the country illegally after the two reporters covered the activities of a separatist group in Ethiopia's Ogaden region. The pair had been sentenced to 13 years in jail. Persson, a photographer, and Schibbye, a reporter, were arrested on July 1, 2011 after entering Ethiopia's southeastern Ogaden region from Somalia with members of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), an armed separatist group, with the aim of covering human rights abuses in the region for the Kontinent news agency. Shortly before their arrest, they were injured in a clash between government forces and the ONLF in which 15 ONLF members were killed. When they appeared in court for the first time on September 6 last year, two months after their arrest, they were charged with “terrorist activities (...) supporting terrorists and providing them with professional aid [and] “entering a sovereign country without a valid visa or legal authorization," government spokesman Shimeles Kemal told Bloomberg news agency at the time. During the September 6 hearing, the prosecutor screened a propaganda video in support of the charges. The video, which showed the two journalists holding guns, had been posted on the pro-government Caakara News website a few days after their arrest. The defense strongly objected to the fact that sounds of shooting had been added to the soundtrack. After the trial opened on October 18, the charge of “participating in terrorism" was dropped on November 3, but the other two charges, supporting a terrorist group and entering the country illegally, were maintained.
