Reporters Without Borders compile a list every year of which countries have the most press freedom and which have the least.* This year, Norway is Number 1. You can write the truth in Norwegian newspapers, and tell it on the news, and online, without fear of arrest and imprisonment. The United Kingdom is 26th on the list. France is 24th. Russia is 164th. China 179th. This year, ERITREA, in 174th position, has the distinction of being even worse than Saudi Arabia (170th) and Iraq (167th).
Here is a quote from the report on the African situation:
“Even if Africa has seen a few significant rises, such as that of Botswana (65th), which has risen 35 places, journalism overall has become more difficult in this continent and the situation is now classified as “bad” in nearly 40% of its countries … Several journalists have also been murdered in Africa, including Martinez Zongo in Cameroon (138th). In Eritrea (174th), the media remain in President Isaias Afwerki’s despotic grip.”**
That is why you will not be reading the latest tragic story in Eritrean newspapers; you will not see this headline.
ERITREAN WOMAN, 24, FOUND DEAD ON CALAIS BEACH
Accounts differ: The Daily Mail says that the young woman, who had been on a small boat, had died of drowning, her body found on Sangatte Beach in Calais.*** Early this morning, in The Week’s “10 Things You Need To Know Today”, it was reported that the woman had been trampled to death on a small boat as 80 other asylum seekers scrambled off it, and then was thrown into the sea. The story has disappeared from The Week’s “10 Things…..”, superseded by further tragic events, as the young Eritrean becomes another statistic.
The young woman is, in fact, one of thousands who have died attempting to escape from the giant prison called Eritrea, a country where soldiers have orders to shoot to kill if they see anyone attempting to cross the border. Even so, young people, who face a life of indefinite military conscription, under conditions that involve slave labour, torture and rape- especially the women – continue to try to flee to countries where some kind of future is possible, even at the risk of death, imprisonment and torture, even as these countries become ever less welcoming, even though they may be sent back.
You will not read about this in any Eritrean newspaper. The government does not want you to know the truth.
One more dead Eritrean, whose identity has not yet been disclosed.
Who will be next?
Human Rights Concern – Eritrea (HRCE)
*https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/13480973/
(and click on where it says, bottom right, “World Press Freedom Index”)
