June 26, 2006
And another one’s gone
The Sub-Saharan Informer was missing from the news-stands in Addis Ababa this weekend.
The English-language, Addis-based newspaper hadn’t sold out. It never came out.
Its staff spent all Thursday night laying out the latest edition. But when they delivered everything to the printers, they hit a brick wall. The printers told the paper they had had a phone call from the Ministry of Information telling them not to start the presses. They said the Ministry told them it had temporarily withdrawn the paper’s license.
This is the latest stage in a long and convoluted tale.
Back in April, this site reported that the Sub-Saharan Informer had been thrown out of its offices in the Bulgarian Embassy. Here are more details on the tangled reasons behind that decision.
The paper spent the next month or so searching the city for affordable office space. It finally settled on a place in a brand new office block opposite the Dembel Centre just off Bole Road.
The paper has now been told that it failed to inform the Ministry of its change of address officially. (The paper insists it did inform the Ministry). As a result, its license has been revoked.
No one at the paper knows whether this is a final revocation, or just a temporary blip that will be resolved with a quick exchange of paperwork. No one knows why they weren't told of the decision before they went to all the time and expense of writing and laying out an entire edition. We will have to wait and see what happens next.
In the meantime we will just have to make do with the three surviving English-language papers that are still worth reading – The Reporter and the business titles Capital and Fortune. (In case anyone is interested, there is still no sign of the bulk of the country’s blogs.)
Posted by aheavens at June 26, 2006 10:23 AM
Comments
Dear Andrew,
Thanks for the article. As an optimist Ethiopian I'm naive enough to think that the problems that erupted after the elections will be solved. I still think they will be solved but maybe not so soon. Someone in the Ministry must have lost his/her mind if they assume shuting up newspapers will solve any problems. What the goverment seems to be doing and saying are just not close enough to one another. I hope they'll stop acting arrogant as they claim the imprisoned oppositions leaders have behaved.
Selam
Tazabeo
Posted by: Tazabeo at June 26, 2006 12:32 PM
I think the international media groups and primarily the Western democratic countries should come out and say it loud to the Ethiopian government to stop intimidating the media and giving all lame excuses to shut up the independent media.What is there to be said more Andrew?
Posted by: daniel at June 26, 2006 2:04 PM
Hi, Andrew.This is sad.I don't know where these people would end up shutting and blocking every thing they don't like.May Allah be with us.
Posted by: arefe at June 26, 2006 3:44 PM
This is just another example of the government's attempt to censor information. There is no free media in Ethiopia to talk off anyway. The remaining papers like the reporter are just government mouthpieces in the name of free press. Mr. Andrew, thank you for the information but why are you surprised when you yourself became very soft in reporting the grim situation in the country for obvious reason.
Posted by: Tazabiw at June 26, 2006 9:03 PM
Dear Andrew,
I hope they leave you alone. You remember what happened to the blogger Addis Ferenji.
I commented earlier that SSI's being forced out of their previous location was no coincidence. I guess I was right. Nothing is shameful for the gang acting as government there...
qq
Posted by: Queyi Qebero at June 27, 2006 5:06 PM