Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has disclosed that he was ready to order jamming of Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts in Amharic, the country’s main official language.
While speaking to journalists,Meles said that the country has been testing for a full jamming of VOA Amharic broadcast over the past few weeks.
Amharic, Ethiopia’s federal language is spoken by the majority of the estimated 80 million people in Ethiopia.
The majority of people, mainly in urban areas of the country listen to the VOA’s Amharic program, broadcast daily from Washington DC .
The dispute between Ethiopia and VOA Amharic program started during the 2005 national election in Ethiopia when Ethiopia accused VOA of engaging in “destabilizing propaganda”, mainly during the election process.
Five journalists who work at VOA Amharic desk in Washington were charged with treason by an Ethiopian court.
However, the treason charges against the VOA journalists and other opposition leaders and local journalists were dismissed after elders intervened.
Violence erupted following the May 2005 national election in which around 200 people were killed.
Ethiopia is preparing to hold its election in May 23,2010 with around 30 million expected to cast their votes.
Meles compared the VOA’s transmissions to broadcasts in Rwanda in the mid-1990s that incited genocide.
Meles indicated that he will give a guideline to jam the broadcast once the testing for jamming is finalized.
He however said that so far no formal decision has been made to jam the signal.
Source African Press Agency
African News from NetNewsPublisher.com
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