Some ninety-four million people around the world - including the Horn of Africa region - tune in each week to the Voice of America in forty-four languages. There are reports that during 2003, police harassed, beat, and detained some Ethiopian journalists. Private newspapers are active and express a wide variety of views. Some private and government journalists, fearing government authorities, censor themselves. All broadcast media are controlled by the government. Amnesty International says that he is reportedly being kept 'in a metal shipping container at Adi Abeto prison, near Asmara.'Įthiopia also restricts freedom of speech and press. Solomon has been held incommunicado by the Eritrean military. This contradicted Eritrea's state-run media, which claimed that the families cheered with pride at the news of the deaths of their loved ones. He reported that the families wept with sorrow. In July 2003, V-O-A correspondent Aklilu Solomon was arrested after broadcasting a news story concerning the families of Eritrean soldiers killed in the war with Ethiopia between 19. A number of journalists, including Fessahaye Yohannes, Seyoum Tsehaye, Dawit Isaak, and Temesgen Gebreyesus have been detained without trial since September 2001. The privately-owned, independent press was shut down by Eritrean authorities in 2001 and remains closed. Freedom of speech and press are severely restricted in Eritrea. International broadcasting is important to the Horn of Africa. As one Afan Oromo caller to V-O-A put it, 'My deepest appreciation goes to the American government and its public for providing information to the Oromo people, who are kept in the dark for so long.' Reaction from speakers of Afan Oromo and Tigrigna has been positive. 'This expansion continues our effort to increase broadcasts to audiences in the Horn of Africa region,' said V-O-A Director David Jackson. The programs are broadcast one half-hour daily, Monday through Friday. The Voice of America has doubled its Afan Oromo and Tigrigna language broadcasts to Ethiopia and Tigrigna broadcasts to Eritrea.

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