Media watchdog issues alert over Djibouti journalist

Reporters sans frontieres on Tuesday protested the alleged detention in Harer, eastern Ethiopia, of Amir Adaweh, editor in chief of ‘La Republique’, the newspaper of the Djibouti opposition Partie nationale democratique (PND). In a letter to Djibouti’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Abdi Farah and Ethiopian Minister for Justice Wolde Woredewolde, RSF asked for the journalist’s location and the reason for his detention to be made known. “If it turns out that he is imprisoned because of his work as a journalist, we ask for his immediate release,” said RSF secretary-general Robert Menard. According to information gathered by the organisation, Adaweh has been held in Harer for more than seven months, since he and other people were reportedly arrested by Ethiopian police while on holiday. “The reason for the arrests remains unknown. The journalist’s jailers are reported to have recently fired at his legs, and Adweh is said to have been taken to the nearest hospital,” the RSF alert stated.