The IWMF is concerned for 2007 Courage in Journalism Award Winner Serkalem Fasil. Her publishing company was convicted June 11 by the Ethiopian High Court – along with two other publishers and four editors – on anti-state charges linked to coverage of the government’s handling of disputed parliamentary elections in 2005.
Fasil, a publisher who owned three newspapers at the time of her arrest in November 2005, could face heavy fines or have her company dissolved, according to CPJ. Fasil was acquitted in April.
Dawit Fasil, brother of Serkalem and deputy editor of one of the company’s newspapers, had also been released in April, but he has now been returned to prison. He faces up to three years of imprisonment on charges of “inciting the public through false rumors.”
- Read the CPJ alert.
- See the press release about this year’s IWMF Courage in Journalism Award winners.
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