Ethiopia cracks down on foreign media over claims of ‘biased’ coverage of Tigray crisis

CAIRO – 20 November 2020: Ethiopia has cracked down on foreign media over covering the Tigray conflict with “bias,” suspending the license of Reuters and warning BBC and Deutsche Welle of the same fate.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed earlier in November launched military operations in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, after he said an attack took place on federal troops.

The ethnic conflict, according to Reuters on Thursday, has killed hundreds and sent 33,000 refugees into Sudan.

The Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority has suspended the license of Reuters, saying the correspondent of the UK-based international news agency, Giulia Paravicini, has received a warning letter before the suspension, according to reports.

The decision taken by the broadcasting authority was due to “false and biased reporting on current affairs, which misleads the world and causes international pressure to mount on Ethiopia,” according to the reports.

The decision comes shortly after the correspondent, Paravicini, wrote that the Tigray confict “called into question whether Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed - Africa’s youngest leader and last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner - can hold his ethnically-divided nation together.”

Her report also said that a federal government air strike wounded many university students on Thursday on Tigray’s Mekelle.

It also added that she received several photos that appeared to show adults with injuries, but noted that Reuters was unable to authenticate the photos or the information.