Freelance journalist Seyoum Tsehaye, a veteran of Eritrea’s independence war against Ethiopia and a former head of state-owned Eri-TV, was arrested in Asmara on 21 September 2001. Now he is prisoner No. 10 at Eiraeiro, a prison camp in the northeast of the country.
A reporter for state-owned Radio Dimtsi Hafash’s Oromo-language service, Daniel Mussie was arrested in November 2006 following the defection of several well-known journalists, because the authorities suspected him of staying in contact with the fugitives or seeking to flee himself. He is being held in Adi Abeito military prison, in the northwestern outskirts of Asmara.
Yirgalem Fisseha Mebrahtu, one of Eritrea’s few women journalists, was aged 27 when she was arrested on 22 February 2009 at Radio Bana, a small radio station broadcasting educational programmes under the education ministry’s supervision. She has been held in solitary confinement for months in May Srwa prison, just to the north of the capital, without anyone knowing what she is alleged to have done.
In all, around 30 journalists are festering in prisons in Eritrea. Some of them have been there for years.
Reporters Without Borders urges you to sign the petition calling for their immediate release.