Comments on: Ethiopian blog blockage sparks free speech debate

By: Lencho

Lencho — Mon, 25 May 2009 13:49:33 +0000

I am very happy to join this special website of global voice for the deprived nation to voice. The Ethiopian government has many peculiar features that makes it least among the countries in the world by having policies and regulations that works agianst the other world very specifically against its nation. I really would rather say that the rulers do not belong to this nation. Because what they performe is draging the nation back from the previous pace the country had. For instance in the last governments the capaital of Africa, Addis Ababa has not been dark but thanks to Woyane no it is dark three days a week, which ofcourse holds through out the country, yet the government is shamelessly speaking of growth while most of the factories are told to shut down. Needless, to say about the violation of human rights, rigths to speach, to association and every aspect of human rights which the government is severly depriving us.

I really encourage the unification of this nation to stand against this government so as to make promising prospect for the country.

By: proud ethiopian

proud ethiopian — Mon, 07 May 2007 00:27:34 +0000

one of the posts above says “EPRDF is killing in hundreds every month.”

this is the reason why meles is suspicious the supporters of previous derg regime are trying to influence our politics.
the fact that one would even say “hundreds” killed “every month” by EPRDF is so crazy, i mean, i have no words to describe such hate and vilification of our ethiopian leaders. it is really sad!

anyway about opposition party leaders like UEDP-medhin Mr.lidetu, OFDM party Mr.Bulcha and other leaders, ethiopians are soooooooooooooo much proud of you guys!!! you are the martin luther kings and the real opposition leaders of ethiopia. you represent the voice of the opposition but you do it peacefully, professionally and with dialogue. daer andrew, if you find Lidetu, Bulcha and others, please tell them WE ARE PROUD OF THEM!!!

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sun, 06 May 2007 10:02:46 +0000

I think there is nothing wrong on ER. Ethiopians have no govermnet. Their state is under the rule of terrior. What is then the problem to defend your country from terrisim using any means possible???
I think we all need to know the truth first. why do we get surprized on the death of 75 people by ONLF? EPRDF is killing in hundreds every month.

Look: Every day hunderds of people die in IraQ. But when just a single person died in the USA, it will be top story for at least a month. Likewise, when ONLF or OLF kills just a single person, it is a top story in the state run televsion ETV, in ethiopia. But when EPRDF kills say 200 people, you will never hear any news about it. I think there is nothing wrong with ER!!

By: Meseret

Meseret — Sun, 06 May 2007 00:10:43 +0000

I think ER is really upset by the government continues repression and crulty to his own people. ER comments is that the so called ethiopian government is not a government but rejected loosers by ethiopian. I think most Ethiopians are agreed with ER except those who paid by the so called ethiopian governmnet such as Lidetu and Neguse

By: Wolloyew

Wolloyew — Sat, 05 May 2007 07:28:27 +0000

Mr. Andrew

I think you are falling into the same sort of faulty logic the intellectually incurious zombie Lidetu Ayalew regularly employs. If you believe in the fundamental principles of democratic societies, you must be capable of swallowing such provocative pronouncement. By the way, have you ever heard of Bavarian Illuminati or ever read the Illuminatus trilogy written by the two Roberts? Imagine! Elias Kifle as Illuminatus Primus is in a conspiracy with the Ethiopian armed groups to destroy the Woyane tyranny and the notorious Arabian tick. I, Wolloyew, am grateful to those Ethiopian bloggers like Elias Kifle who speak the truth to power; it is thankless and difficult but vital work.

By: DT

DT — Sat, 05 May 2007 01:59:12 +0000

The fact that no private media existed before this government arrived seems to be forgotten. well, at least the government is trying as opposed to other african governments like Eritrean that doesn’t even have one private media. anyway, it is a process and we should encourage it and support those government representatives who are doing their best to implement this culture in ethiopia carefully without creating hatemongers that would reflect the suspicion and division of the people, and exploit this opportunity to express their voice of hate, which would be disasterous for our diverse nation that needs healing, unity based on equality – not journalists that expand our differences in every way.

For those of us who know our history and for those of us who are not blinded by hate, it is an understatement to say the current meles zenawi government has done an amazing job with bringing private media, while still being caution about the side effects of it in a nation with a polarized politics.

By: Don Bassman

Don Bassman — Fri, 04 May 2007 17:19:55 +0000

Prime Minister Zenawi has already written his own obituary. He continued to box himself into a corner and the rest of the world is losing patience. The free world despises him, as do so many of his people. He is a despot. His cowardice in blocking free speech shows just how week his his; cannot allow critical speech lest the truth be discussed openly.

WE in the international community are in close touch with CPJ, HRW, and our newly empowered US collegues in Congress. Hands off free speech. Redeem yourself MR Zenawi and allow free speech. Don’t be Mobutu. Be Mandela.

By: Yibiqan

Yibiqan — Fri, 04 May 2007 15:07:44 +0000

Dear Andrew Heavens,

While your article is so important in summarizing the responses against the brutal regime’s blockage of the websites, and scratched for justifications for this,it is really questionable why you never mentioned about the hate monger and terrorist websites of the pro-woyanie hirelings: aigaforum and hagerfikir. If what you stated justifies the blockage of those critical websites like ER, you should also should have gone further and include the pro-woyanie apologist’s articles that are well accessible all over the world-you should have included SAmuel Gebrue’s blatant article on the justification of the war crimes.

By: sholla

sholla — Fri, 04 May 2007 14:21:55 +0000

the ethiopian government spocks man sayed “it could be becouse of technical problems” andrew purposly filtered this out. Imagine faulty equipment selects oppsition pages and bloks. This indicates that the faulty equippment is the brain of eprdf and their suppoters.

Hallo guys the ethiopians are much conious than andrew and other reporters who are coloring eprdf.you may fool your likes ferenji

By: teddy

teddy — Fri, 04 May 2007 13:03:50 +0000

andrew heavens, it is saddening that you still tried to accuse our leaders in ethiopia of censorship after knowing how much journalism is abused in ethiopia. in fact, in ethiopia and by ethiopian exiles in the west, journalism values, ethic and standards have been destroyed and buried many years ago!!!! the list of abuses of so-called “oppositions” and “critics” is endless to even mention!!
i mean, what about when bloggers asked for the ethiopian deputy minister to be assasinated in his late 2006 visit to USA?? remember the anuak conflict? so what about when previous derg regime supporters disguised under “journalists” in ethiopia printed a paper saying meles zenawi is hitler after the anuak conflict??? doesn’t that sound to you like a satisfying revenge for their beloved mengistu?? do YOU think they should get a chance to serve the previous DERG regime by trying to EQUATE the death of 200 ethiopians in gambela,(in a case of ethnic conflict that has become a norm) to the death of nearly 1,500,000 ethiopians by Derg by genocide & systematic control of food aid in 1980’s???do you support such defamation of the prime minister??
what about when “opposition” websites displayed the photo of a US plane roaming around in mogadishu in 1990s and claimed it was a “woyane” plane massacring & bombing civilians in mogadishu??? can you expect anyone outside ethiopia to like meles zenawi after such brainwashing by the so-called “critiics” which act more like “terrorists”?? (by the way, most of these so-called critics are usually those that came to america using asylum and can’t return to ethiopia unless woyane is “overthrown” and the rest of them are actually criminals that managed to escape. our friend andrew, these are your so-called “critics” ) But what about when “opposition” websites displayed torture photos of prisons in Asia and said they were photos of woyane prisons??? what about when “opposition” websites displayed another photo of a helicopter down in Iraq to appease their viewers by saying it is a photo of woyane helicopter in mogadishu?? after witnessing all of this “journalism” can you wholeheartedly call these people “oppositions”?? when is the last time Hilary clinton tried 24 hours 7 days a week to use propaganda to overthrow george bush?? my friend andrew, who were you really kidding when you said they are “oppositions”?? these are the same people who have militants like OLF and ONLF stationed at ethiopian borders and in asmara to attack our people. mr. andrew, these are the people that are involved in overthrowing our government violently. they DO NOT represent the oppositions OFDM, UEDF, UEDP-medhin or anyone like that. they are at war with the people of ethiopia and with our “young” democracy which is a democracy that can sadly say thank you to these same terrorists disguised under “critics” for staying “young” even after 7 years since our nation had its first multi-party election in its history. Please mr. andrew, speak the truth, tell the truth!!

By: samuel

samuel — Thu, 03 May 2007 16:09:29 +0000

The so-called Ethiopian government is a unique case of a government who has all the makings of a terrorist organization. So, the 64 million dollar question would be: does one has to be non-government to be labeled as a terrorist organization? I know the U.S. has an elaborate list of terrorist sponsoring states, but can we also have terrorist states that terrorize their own people? I’m not talking about dictatorship. This is much serious than dictatorship. I haven’t seen a dictatorship that made “its own” country landlocked by helping a huge chunk of the country secede without any regard for the interests of one’s country. The Ethiopian government is a first case of what it would be like if a terrorist organization comes to power. What we see in Ethiopia today is the result of a terrorist organization masquerading as a government and plundering the wealth of the nation and torturing and killing its citizens with a tacit approval of the US and British governments. Ethiopians should be commended for treating their terrorist (TPLF) in the same way the us government is treating its.

By: Solomon Mamo

Solomon Mamo — Thu, 03 May 2007 16:00:12 +0000

The subjugation of free speach in Ethiopia is beyond anyone’s imagination. Even the openNet initiative put Ethiopia as the number one violator of Free speach in this planet which is okay but if Ethiopia ranks number one, there can’t be any number next to Ethiopia. That is number two, three up to may be hundered violators in that list.

Ethiopia’s is dammen worst without any comparision. free press is killed so to speak, jounalists are jailed, murdered and made to flee their home, yes the governments pay too much granted/loan development projects money to internet huckers to get the opposition websites blocked. Even this time it is not possible to talk Ethiopian politics on phone since anyone don’t want to take the risk that his telephone is hijacked and put himself and his familes in harms way.

Besides in Ethiopia, it is strictly forbidden to sit together and discuss any issues including politics. The number of spys in major cities I guess might be greater than the civilian people. If you remembers in the last court hearing of the jailed opposition leaders, the judged disallowed them to have discussion among themsleves. Imagine, these people are under the gun and yet they are not allowed to talk.