Tigray War Exposes Limits to Abiy’s Promises of Press Freedom

WASHINGTON - In September 2019, Simon Marks moved to Ethiopia, drawn by the rapid changes following its shift in leadership and declaration of peace with neighboring Eritrea after a war and decades of tensions. 

Since then, he has reported on the widespread optimism after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power and won the Nobel Peace Prize, and the human cost of the war in Tigray. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can download this video to view it offline. But on May 20, Ethiopia expelled Marks from the country. The freelancer, who reports for The New York Times and Voice of America among others, is the latest casualty in what many journalists and rights groups say is a limited tolerance for critical reporting on the Tigray conflict. Since November, the Ethiopian government has been fighting the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, a regional political party that led the country’s ruling coalition for nearly 30 years. The war has displaced tens of thousands of people and left millions in need of humanitarian aid, the United Nations says.