Taatee Gabaasi

One of EGE’s core intervention areas is promoting the safety of journalists in Ethiopia. We strongly believe that violations on media freedom in Ethiopia deserve a better attention by authorities and those attacking the media are brought to the book.

With support from UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of Communications (IPDC), we monitor and document threats and attacks on journalists, issue statements, advocate for remedies and publish annual reports on the safety status of Ethiopian journalists and media houses. Our approaches give a special emphasis of attacks on women journalists in Ethiopia.

Through this interactive portal, EGE documents any incident of violation on media workers and media houses across Ethiopia. The documented alerts are then verified and analyzed for further solution interventions.

We, at EGE, collect incidents of attacks (from verbal insults to digital and physical attacks) on journalists and media houses in Ethiopia under physical, digital and psychological classifications. Any attack on a journalist such as killing, abduction, threats against the physical integrity of a journalist or a family member, arbitrary detention and imprisonment, unwarranted or politically driven arrest, harassment on a journalist or damage or destruction of a journalist’s equipment or property are all considered as a physical attack. We urge anyone (especially our member editors) to report such incidents through the platform.

In addition to incidents of threats of physical attacks on a journalist; psychological abuse, bullying, online harassment and cyber bullying, defamation, hate speech or demeaning language against a journalist, unjustified or indiscriminate blocking of websites or social media platforms, hacking, and surveillance or interception of communications of a journalist without due process of authorization are all reported as an attack on media.

In a male-dominated media ecosystem such as ours, it is our responsibility to give a due attention to attacks women journalists face at both media house level and while in line of duty. EGE underlines that Ethiopian women journalists face a double burden when attacked both as a journalist and as women. Threats of gender based violence on women journalists are critical features of our monitoring course.

If you come across any kind of incident on a journalist or a media house, you can submit the threats to EGE by clicking here. We encourage you to give us as much information as you can and let us have your contact details so a team from EGE can reach out to you right away. Including links, pictures, videos and related documents in your report or sharing them via e-mail is highly appreciated as it eases the verification and analysis process from our side. Whether it is a digital, physical or gender based violence on women journalists, please fill out the required information here and click the ‘submit button’.