Editor arrested, reported missing

The editor-in-chief of the private newspaper ‘Mekalih’, Mattewos Habteab, was reportedly arrested by security forces on 25 July, the Eritrean opposition website Awate.com reported on 29 July. His present whereabouts was unknown, said Awate. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has in the past expressed concern over missing Eritrean journalists. On 7 June it issued a statement referring to 15 missing journalists “alleged to be in prison or to have been forcibly conscripted”. In the past, the government had responded to inquiries of missing journalists by saying that they were in the army fulfilling their national service obligations, Awate said. In a circular, the government had instructed members of the Eritrean Defence Forces to limit their communications exclusively to government-owned newspapers, a move seen by some as a crackdown of the independent media, said Awate.