Advocates Petition UN to Intervene on Jailed Ethiopian Bloggers’ Behalf
Last April, nine writers were arrested and imprisoned in association with Ethiopia's Zone 9 blogging collective. Eleven weeks later, they were charged under the nation's Anti-Terrorism Proclamation. Since their arrest, Soleyana Gebremicheal and Endalk Chala, two members of the collective who now live in the United States, have advocated tirelessly for their colleagues’ release. Global Voices is honored to publish this original contribution by Soleyana and her colleague, Patrick Griffith, who are now petitioning the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to intervene on the bloggers’ behalf. By Soleyana S. Gebremicheal and Patrick Griffith Despite early, high-level condemnation of the arrests of independent journalists and bloggers in Ethiopia nine months ago, international attention has waned as the pre-trial proceedings have dragged-on. The government’s continued detention of three independent journalists and six members of the Zone 9 blogging collective is not only