Interview with EFJA president Kifle Mulat

Kifle Mulat is the president of the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists' Association (EFJA) which is currently opposing the government's new draft press law. He tells IRIN why he is opposed to the new law, what laws he feels should be in place and of the fragile relationship between the government and free press. QUESTION: Do you think there should be any laws to regulate journalists? ANSWER: A code of conduct or ethics is the best way to regulate a journalist. But in the current situation in Ethiopia we believe there must be a law. That law should depend upon the constitution – a good constitution - and that law has to be drafted keeping to the rights of the constitution. That is what we argue for, freedom of expression, and access to information. Harassing journalists or detaining journalists for a long time is not the way forward. I have been in prison before for six months without a court order. Q: The new press law does say the government must give you access to information? A: What it is saying is a very unique and harsh point. When you need access to information you can wait up to 30 days. Then they can reject it and you have to wait up to two months. How can a journalist wait two months? It also says you can pay to get some documents, how much we don’t know. But if the minister says US $10,000 so be it. They have to put specifics in the law. It has to be specified in detail. Q: What laws do you feel should be in place to improve Ethiopia’s fledgling media? A: First of all the media must be free, totally. If the government controls the media you will always have problems. We have to get investors to invest in the media and Ethiopian law has to be ratified so that foreigners are allowed. Kenya has foreign investors, why not us. We don’t have the capacity here. The government has to leave the media sector to the public and investors. In the last 10 years no foreign investor has invested in a newspaper here because they are afraid of the government. Thirdly we must train journalists... We say access to information must be within 24 hours or so, not 30 days. Publications should be allowed in the country from outside Ethiopia, we should be allowed to report news from opposition groups, or groups outside Ethiopia, these sorts of issues. Everything has to be changed. This is not only the right of the journalists; freedom of expression is the right of the population. This law is restricting not only journalists but also the rights of the people. We think article 12 that prohibits what you can write and limits the use of information is the most draconian. Q: What role do you think the government should play in forming a new law or code of ethics? A: To form a code of conduct, to formulate a press council is the right of the journalists. The government can’t bring in the press council. We will set up a press council but at this stage we need to bring people on board. We have to strengthen the journalists' association otherwise it is meaningless to have a press council. It is not easy to bring a press council to this country. We need to work with the publishers, the civil society – even the government has a stake. Our concern is the government will control the press council. But then the draft press law says everything is to be controlled by the government. Q: What is the next step forward in developing an accepted press law? A: There is enormous international pressure from outside. Human rights organisations and press organisations are campaigning. They are putting pressure on the government and have contacted the Prime Minister and Minister of Information. The diplomats here in Addis see this press law, they can see what it means, and if they are for democratisation in this country they have to say something to the government. They cannot keep quiet; they have an obligation to work for democracy. Q: How do you see journalists putting their own house in order? A: If we get complaints about the press we will contact the editors and advise them, that is what we do. But we are not going to take any other action. The government accuses the free press of not having a code of ethics. We know that. We have many problems. But to tackle these problems you need to organise the journalists under one organisation. The government is always commenting that journalists do not apply their code of ethics, but then what did we get from the government. We get a draconian press law, journalists sent to prison or fined. Otherwise we have never seen any constructive measures from this government. Q: What sort of action do you think should be taken against inflammatory articles? A: The code of ethics is not a law. What we have to do is educate our journalists, we have to work with the journalists to understand what they are doing. When they are well acquainted with the profession, I hope they will not do that. We are not able to have a lot of seminars or training and we have lost a lot of journalists in this country under the Derg and the EPRDF [ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front] because of harsh press laws. To be a journalist in this country is not a prestigious job, it is badly paid so many journalists leave. So we recognise we lack the access and the knowledge. So you have to teach these journalists, you have to train them. Addis Ababa University has been there 55 years and does not have a faculty of journalism, so where do you breed these journalists? The government has to understand these problems. Let's get the right press law first then we can talk about defamation or slander. Q: Will the press law apply to the government press? A: For the last ten years no journalist has gone to prison, no journalist has been harassed who has worked for the government. So whether there is a law or not is not the issue. It is what they do with the law. They don’t apply it to them. They are under harsh censorship so there is no chance they can make mistakes. In the last five years more than 200 journalists have been fined or gone to prison. At one time we had 24 journalists in prison. Q: How do you now move to building a constructive relationship between the government and private press? A: We are not an enemy of the government but at the same time we are not afraid of the government. We are responsible for our code of ethics. There are always clashes between journalists and the government but if the government is a democratic, transparent and accountable government then there is no problem. The government wants journalists to work and advocate for it. But this is the duty of the government press not the free press. Q: How do you see the future free press if this law comes in as it is? A: Under this law editors have to pay six months in advance to the printing press. This is a poor country and journalists could not afford to do this. There are only two printing presses for newspapers in Ethiopia and they are government owned. Printing costs alone have gone up 200 percent in the last ten years. They have used this to control the press. They also say no-one can get funds from anyone outside the country which restricts finance.