Ethiopia To Block VOA
Local Language Service
Ethiopia’s
Prime Minister, Melles Zenawi says the Voice of America’s (VOA)
local Amharic language service in Ethiopia will be blocked, as
its broadcast is destabilising the country.
Meles said that in many respect, the VOA Amharic Service has
copied the worst practices of radio stations such as Radio Mille
Collines of Rwanda in engaging in destabilising propaganda.
VOA has however said in a statement that, it has not had talks
with the Ethiopian government for more than two years and that
any comparison of VOA programming to the genocidal broadcasts of
Rwanda's Radio Mille Collines is incorrect and unfortunate.
VOA says its broadcasts into Ethiopia in the dominant Amharic
language have been jammed for three weeks.
International press freedom advocacy groups say the government
is cracking down on the media ahead of the elections in May.
The government has however denied this.
The broadcaster, set up during World War Two to counter
anti-U.S. propaganda, broadcasts in forty-five languages.
REUTERS/Williams/Yinka
