Editor of top Ethiopian independent news site seized by police, publisher says

The Addis Standard’s Yonas Kedir was taken last Saturday, held for 24 hours and subjected to “prolonged interrogation”, Jakken Publishing said in a statement on Thursday that also described a raid on the news site’s offices. Rights groups have described these latest incidents as part of a pattern of targeting independent news outlets. The Ethiopian government has not responded to a BBC request for comment.

In February, the authorities revoked the Addis Standard’s media registration saying it had violated media ethics and what it described as threats to “national interests”, but did not specify which reports it was referring to. The news site was able to continue working as it was challenging the move in court. The alleged abduction of Yonas took place on the first of three days of action against the Addis Standard, Jakken Publishing said.

“Two individuals dressed in civilian clothes… violently seized me,” the AFP news agency quotes Yonas as saying in a written statement. “[They] struck me and forcibly loaded me into a double-cab pickup truck. They accused me of ‘selling the country out’.” On the second day, Sunday 2 August, a security team raided the outlet’s offices “without due process”, Jakken Publishing said, confiscating equipment from its multimedia studio.