Ethiopian Journal

APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi late on Thursday 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 is testing for a full jamming of VOA Amharic broadcast since the past few weeks.

Amharic, Ethiopia’s federal language is being spoken by the majority of the estimated 80 million Ethiopian populations.

The majority of people, mainly in urban areas of the country listen to the VOA’s Amharic program, broadcasted daily from Washington DC .

The dispute between Ethiopia and VOA Amharic program started during the 2005 national election in Ethiopia where Ethiopia accused VOA of engaging in “destabilising 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 charge 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.

DT/jk/APA 

2010-03-19