{"id":1358,"date":"2014-06-26T11:42:28","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T15:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/internetmonitor\/?p=1358"},"modified":"2014-06-26T11:45:10","modified_gmt":"2014-06-26T15:45:10","slug":"this-is-zone-nine-the-continued-imprisonment-of-six-ethiopian-bloggers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/internetmonitor\/2014\/06\/26\/this-is-zone-nine-the-continued-imprisonment-of-six-ethiopian-bloggers\/","title":{"rendered":"This is Zone Nine: The Continued Imprisonment of Six Ethiopian Bloggers"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a prison, hidden in the suburbs of Addis Ababa, named Kality<\/a>. Home to many of Ethiopia\u2019s political prisoners, the prison is divided into eight zones. The last of these zones, Zone Eight, is home<\/a> to detained journalists, human rights activists, and dissidents.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Free Zone 9 bloggers campaign image. Created by Hugh D’Andrade, remixed by Hisham Almiraat; via Global Voices Advocacy<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

To some Ethiopian netizens, there is a Ninth Zone \u2013 a Zone dedicated to the \u201cproverbial prison in which all Ethiopians live\u201d<\/a>. In 2012, a group of passionate Ethiopian bloggers launched Zone Nine<\/a>, a blogging collective that, in its own words<\/a>, \u201cblogs because it cares\u201d. Zone Nine prides itself<\/a> on providing a counter to the opinions, voices, and attitudes that dominate Ethiopia\u2019s press.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The six arrested Zone Nine bloggers; via Global Voices Advocacy<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

In April 2014, six of Zone Nine\u2019s bloggers \u2013 along with three print journalists suspected of associating with the group \u2013 were arrested on the grounds that they were covertly receiving money from foreign human rights organizations to incite violence through social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

63 days have passed since their detention. The bloggers have appeared in court continually over the past few months while being detained<\/a> in Addis Ababa\u2019s Maekelawi detention center. No formal charges have been leveled against them as of yet. That said, activists fear that these bloggers and journalists will suffer the same fate that befell Eskinder Nega and Reeyot Alemu<\/a>, two journalists imprisoned and charged with terrorism (a crime that carries heavy fines and a lengthy prison term) in 2011.<\/p>\n

The collective has blogged about numerous political issues affecting the Ethiopian populace, hoping to bolster civic discourse in service of social change. In the wake of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi\u2019s death, for example, Zone Nine penned scathing critiques<\/a> of Zenawi\u2019s proclaimed economic development achievements, casting doubt on his legacies. They also partnered with Global Voices to launch Global Voices in Amharic<\/a> in 2012, hoping to make international news accessible to local readers.<\/p>\n

Since its inception, Zone Nine has amassed a passionate readership within the country. According to its own bloggers, Zone Nine\u2019s stories have occasionally been picked up by wider-known publications<\/a> within the country, signaling wider support for the messages it has broadcasted. Outside of Ethiopia, the detention of the Zone Nine bloggers has ignited public furor. Global Voices launched a #FreeZone9Bloggers hashtagging campaign<\/a>\u00a0and organized a FreeZone9Bloggers Tweetathon<\/a> on May 14, while UN High Commissioner Navi Pillay criticized<\/a> Ethiopia\u2019s increasing frequency of charges against journalists on the grounds of terrorism.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

@gerardvanmourik<\/a> @endalk2006<\/a> @Eshete<\/a> #zone9bloggers<\/a> will overcome someday! #change<\/a> will visit #ethiopia<\/a> and no one will be able to stop her<\/p>\n

\u2014 twsgy\u2122 (@twsgy) June 10, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

@natnaelteklu<\/a> this sums up why #Zone9Bloggers<\/a> or any concerned citizen is jailed in #Ethiopia<\/a>, #FreeZone9Bloggers<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/wO11vcRtzd<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Fitsum Tilahun (@fitse_t) June 10, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Slowly losing track of # of days #Zone9Bloggers<\/a> jailed, but not losing track of them. 1 is a numerical issue, the other is a human issue.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Maaza Mengiste (@MaazaMengiste) June 7, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

The arrests arrive in the context of what some activists fear is a growingly repressive media milieu in Ethiopia. For years, journalists \u2013 on and offline \u2013\u00a0have been susceptible to governmental terrorism charges. The Committee to Protect Journalists has claimed<\/a> that more journalists have fled Ethiopia since May 2013 than in anywhere else in the world. An ambiguously-worded anti-terrorism law, mobilized in 2009, gave the Ethiopian government the power to act against any form of political dissent so long as it is deemed \u201csupportive of armed opposition activity<\/a>\u201d. The passage of this law has led to the arrest and detention<\/a> of scores of journalists.<\/p>\n

Recently, this fight against journalists has moved online, with Ethiopian governmental officials moving to counteract online criticism of their efforts by training blogging recruits<\/a> to attack any online criticism of the administration\u00a0(a practice known as astroturfing<\/a>). The government has trained over 230 bloggers since May, teaching them how to post comments that sing the praises of the regime on social media\u2014a particularly interesting move, given that less than 2% of Ethiopia\u2019s population has Internet access<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Six members of the Ethiopian blogging collective Zone Nine have been imprisoned for 63 days. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6386,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"This is Zone Nine: The Continued Imprisonment of Six Ethiopian Bloggers http:\/\/wp.me\/p4L9BV-lU","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[83977,3687,60565,30080],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arrests-and-imprisonment","category-censorship","category-ethiopia","category-protests"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4L9BV-lU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/internetmonitor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/internetmonitor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/internetmonitor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/internetmonitor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6386"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/internetmonitor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1358"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/internetmonitor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1368,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/internetmonitor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions\/1368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/internetmonitor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/internetmonitor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/internetmonitor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}