Kalkidan Yibeltal
Temesgen Dessalegn has accused the government of “authoritarianism”
The security forces in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, have seized the managing director of popular weekly magazine Fitih, his colleagues have told the BBC.
Temesgen Dessalegn has been critical of the government and told the BBC last Friday that he might be targeted.
He accused the government of “authoritarianism” and being “hellbent on stifling any media exposing its wrongdoings”.
It comes after media rights watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said that 11 journalists and media workers had been arrested in recent days.
The BBC has unsuccessfully tried to get a response from the police in Addis Ababa about Mr Temesgen’s detention.
The federal police and Addis Ababa authorities have told state-run media outlets that more than 340 individuals suspected of terrorism and other crimes have been arrested in the city in the past few weeks.
This follows the announcement that 4,500 people have recently been arrested in the region of Amhara.
The state-affiliated Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said that many of those arrests were carried out without proper court warrants.
Source: BBC
