Addis Ababa August 5/2014 Ministry of Justice announced on Monday August 4, 2014 that it has pressed criminal charges against the publishers and organizations of the following private magazines, Jano, Lomi, Fact, Addis Gudaye, Enque and the weekly Afrotimes.
Accordingly, legal prosecution will continue against the publishers and mass-media outlets involved in repeated violation of the law.
The following is the full statement issued by Ministry of Justice.
The Plot to Dismantle the Constitutional Order Through Violence Must Stop!
A Statement Issued by Ministry of Justice
It is well known that our constitution protects freedom of expression and free press as a fundamental right. To ensure the full exercise of this right government has enacted a series of enabling laws. As a result of the prevalence of a conducive environment in the country, several electronic and print media outlets, organized at three-tire level, have been freely functioning for many years to date. Particularly, it is widely known that numerous print media of varying content are in circulation.
It is also clear that among the media professionals and organizations, the large majority observes the provisions of the constitution and the enabling laws of the constitution and function responsibly as they exercise and promote freedom of the press. Unfortunately there are the few media networks that willfully violate the legal limits of the enabling laws and jeopardize national security by glorifying terrorism and extremism, funning ethnic and religious discoed among the people, defaming public figures and public institutions, and inciting violent riots.
In this regard, government has organized several consultation sessions with all stakeholders to particularly enable the private print media play its indispensable role in a responsible manner both in the promotion of freedom expression and in the democratization process as a whole and thereby promote the industry. The government has repeatedly affirmed it commitment to strengthen the media landscape. To strengthen the fledgling media industry, government has refrained from taking administrative and legal measure against manifest extreme transgressions committed by a few in the private print media sector. Rather, the government has prudently chosen to caution and encourage the print-media community to rectify the problem.
However, in complete disregard of the government’s counsel for moderation, a few private media organizations and of practitioners have continued spreading criminally libel and false reports to erode public confidence in government and incite violence aimed at dismantling the constitutional order. The public victimized by negative media output have repeatedly called on the government to take legal measures against those who perpetrate such crime using the constitutional right of the press as a cover. Nonetheless, despite the worsening situation, as it bears responsibility of ensuring rule of law, government has preferred to exhaustively explore all options short of resort to legal steps, so as to the print media rectify its misdeeds. Even then, a few publications, in utter disregarded of government’s patience and counsel have chosen to violet the low even more.
Hence, to serve notice of the consequence of flagrant violations, the federal prosecutor has pressed criminal charges against the publishers and organizations of the following private magazines, Jano, Lomi, Fact, Addis Gudaye, Enque and the weekly Afrotimes. Legal prosecution will also continue against publishers and mass-media outlets involved in repeated violation of the law.
Finally, the government takes this opportunity to renew its commitment to promote and strengthen the print media industry and the work environment. Reaffirming its pledge to deepen its partnership with all actors in the sector, the ministry of Justice call on stakeholders to bear their fare share of responsibility in broadening the horizon of our country’s irreversibly enshrined freedom of the press and the right to free expression.
Source: ENA
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