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Theme: Eritrea & Ethiopia

Editorial

The third condition of freedom

Food or morals? This Brecht quote and dilemma underlies the discussion about the freedom of speech and other human...

Text: Ola Larsmo April 08 2015
Article

The culture is in the hands of those who toe the line

Biased and centrally controlled news reporting, poor professional knowledge, endemic resignation amongst journalists and misleading directives—this is how author and journalist Abraham T. Zere...

Text: Abraham T. Zere April 08 2015
Article

Under the Ethiopian state

Without investigative journalists, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly how a dictatorship abuses the legal system and courts. Here, the well-known Ethiopian journalist Temesgen Desalegn describes such...

Text: Temesgen Desalegn April 08 2015
Article

No one cares about women’s rights in Ethiopia

The problem is not just that advancements in women’s rights in Ethiopia seem to have come to a standstill—whoever calls to attention these grievances and the betrayal of the female half of the...

Text: Anonymous April 08 2015
Article

Letter from Kality prison: Who’s guilty?

No one who has not been wrongly imprisoned can really understand how the system, bit by bit, erodes one’s dignity and self-respect. Prizewinning Ethiopian journalist Reeyot Alemu was sent down for...

Text: Reeyot Alemu April 08 2015
Article

Diamonds form under high pressure

Swedish journalist Martin Schibbye and photographer Johan Persson were held for one and a half years in Kality prison. Martin is very familiar with the environment described in many of the texts in...

Text: Martin Schibbye April 08 2015
Fiction

Dogs and humans in Addis Ababa

Where does the idea of a just society begin? Perhaps in a sudden moment in the morning traffic. Author and chairman in Ethiopian PEN Solomon Hailemariam sees the biggest change in the smallest thing...

Text: Solomon Hailemariam April 08 2015
Article

The price of being a journalist in Eritrea

Being a journalist in Eritrea means risking your life every day. Here, the pseudonym Mussie Hadgu writes about what made him become a journalist. “The crimes I witnessed shook me to the core, and I...

Text: Mussie Hadgu April 08 2015
Article

Soon five thousand days in prison

On 2 June, it will be exactly 5,000 days since the imprisonment of Swedish-Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaak. A quarter of his life has gone to waste. Here, Esayas Isaak writes about his brother.

Text: Esayas Isaak April 08 2015
Poetry

My Eritrea

Poet and journalist Haile Bizen is known in his native Eritrea by the epithet “the man who broke the silence”. He was forced to flee the country after repeated persecution and systematic interrogation...

Text: Haile Bizen April 08 2015
Article

Underground journalism in Eritrea

Eritrea has long languished at the bottom of Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index. Despite this, many journalists risk their lives to report on what is happening in the country. One of...

Text: Stefanos Temolso April 08 2015

Theme: LGBT rights and free speech

Article

The legislation in Greece is catching up with reality

The situation for LGBT people in Greece is complex. One the one hand legislation is outlawing hate speech directed at minorities. On the other, violence and threats are commonplace. There is an...

Text: Vagelis Mallios December 16 2014
Interview

One afternoon in Bishkek

At the PEN International Congress in Kyrgyzstan, British journalist and writer Juliet Jacques gave a speech on the situation for transsexuals in Thatchers Great Britain, when “section 28”, a law...

Text: Juliet Jacques December 16 2014
Poetry

Poems in exile

Iranian poet, LGBT and human rights activist Elham Malekpoor has published several collections of poetry, most of which have been censored in Iran. She particularly deals with child labour and queer...

Text: Elham Malekpoor December 16 2014
Fiction

Before the lunar eclipse

Iran is a country full of paradoxes. While the state has enacted some of the strictest laws in the world when it comes to same-sex relationships, sex change for homosexuals has become a thriving...

Text: Ramesh Safavi December 16 2014

No Uhuru yet for the Zimbabwean LGBTI movement

LGBTI people in Zimbabwe are regularly harassed by the regime. During teh 2013 election the abuse escalated when president Robert Mugabe tried to win voters by promising that if he won there would be...

Text: Miles Rutendo Tanhira December 16 2014
Article

Living on the rim of a volcano

LGBT-persons are increasingly being cast as “enemies of society” in contemporary Russia. But as the activist Svetlana Zakharova writes, the new law prohibiting “propaganda of homosexuality” has also...

Text: Svetlana Zakharova December 16 2014
Article

In search of an “outsider”

The Russian law criminalizing “Propaganda of homosexuality” isn’t just targeting minorities. The law, and homophobia in general, tends to make real problems invisible, as well as covering the real...

Text: Natalya Afanasyeva December 16 2014
Fiction

The way we were

In January this year, Nigeria signed an anti-HBTQ law which criminalizes public displays of affection between same-sex couples and restricts the work of organizations defending gay people. This law...

Text: Jude Dibia December 16 2014

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