Getachew Simie

Ethiopia, CAHR, Autumn 2016

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My name is Getachew Simie, I'm Ethiopian and I was born in the central part of Ethiopia. I am 48 years old. I'm the eldest boy in a family of seven, three boys and four girls. I am married and a father of three children, two boys and one girl.

After I studied journalism and computer science, beginning from 1997, I used to work as a freelance journalist for newspapers published in the official language and later on I became a reporter for a weekly official language newspaper. Beginning from 1999, I have been working as a senior reporter, Editor and Editor-in-Chief in highly circulated privately owned national newspapers and magazines.

My entire journey in journalism has not been conducted without obstacles and challenges. Throughout my career in journalism I have faced threats, harassment, detention and imprisonment as a result of the stories published in the newspapers I used to work for. I covered different issues, I conducted investigative reporting on corruption and on the violation of children's rights, rights of women and of people in detention in particular. My articles and stories made me in the attention of the intelligence arm of the ruling party. A number of times I was arrested and then released due to the pressure from the then journalist association and a campaign by the media.

I was in prison in the year 2006, shortly after the contested national election. In the aftermath of the election, a large number of journalists and political opposition leaders were arrested and imprisoned. I was accused because of a news report that had been published when I was working as an editor in the now defunct private official language newspaper "Hagere". I was accused by the government prosecution office due to a story that focused on the investigation of families who controlled a large business empire in the country and who were influential in the ruling party in Ethiopia. I was imprisoned in the notorious Kality and Ziway prisons for three months.

During my journalism career, I served in the then Ethiopian Free Press Journalist Association (EFJA) as a public relations officer and as a result of my contribution to the media landscape in the country I was awarded a certificate from the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) through the nomination of the Ethiopian Free Press Journalist Association (EFJA). In addition, the International Press Institute (IPI) recognized my journalism work and gave me an honorary membership in the year 1999. I was also awarded a peace ambassador certificate from Universal Peace Federation based in Seoul, South Korea, as a recognition for the contribution I made for peace when I was a journalist.

Due to a government crackdown on the media, the space for the media sector was shrinking so that in the end critical and influential Ethiopian newspapers were closed.

Due to a government crackdown on the media, the space for the media sector was gradually shrinking so that in the end critical and influential Ethiopian newspapers were closed. After this took place I was forced to stop working as a full-time journalist. However, I'm still doing activities focusing on rights and freedoms. Since 2009 I'm working in a local civil society organisation (CSO) called Peace Family and Media Association (PFMA) in the position of media capacity building, information and publication section head. In this CSO I have done various activities and contributed to media focused human rights work such as promoting and advocating girls' education, prevention of child labour and child trafficking, and promoting gender equality as well as other cross cutting issues through continuous capacity building training programs. Around 300 mini-media and community radio volunteer journalists have got intermediate and advanced skill enhancement trainings in this program. Together with my colleagues I'm also engaged in bolstering the capacity of mainstream media journalists to give priority to social accountability and transparency issues in their reporting.

I'm one of three people in Ethiopia engaged in advocating and promoting community radio stations. Due to my continuous advocacy, community radio stations are now recognized in the Broadcasting Service Proclamation. Nowadays around 20 community radio stations function across the country. I'm also engaged in strengthening these community radio stations' producers (volunteer journalists) to be proactive and act as a catalyst on girls' education, gender equality and children’s rights. According to an assessment carried out by the consultant on our project that was supported by the European Union Civil Society Fund in Ethiopia, it was indicated that community radio stations that have benefited from my organization's projects have made a remarkable achievement in terms of reducing the level of child trafficking, child labour and abduction.

I have also studied law at the University to enable myself to work on legal issues that can empower media practitioners to promote basic constitution and legal issues. Moreover, I have created an enabling environment for poor women and girls from low income families to be able to get free legal services from volunteer lawyers in criminal and civil cases.

As a human rights defender a fellowship opportunity offered by CAHR will have a great impact in my future endeavours through the skills and knowledge I will acquire here, and in the way that I'm able to expand my human rights work in my country and effectively address human rights issues at a local level in a challenging environment. As an active human rights defender I hope I can contribute to the prevention of violations widely practised in my country, and to promote basic human rights for those millions who seek to attain rights in their day to day life.