Updated report on Information controls in Ethiopia

In its updated report on Information controls in Ethiopia, the OpenNet Initiative states that Ethiopia remains a highly restrictive environment in which to express political dissent online. The government of Ethiopia has long filtered critical and oppositional political content, ONI reports. Anti-terrorism legislation is frequently used to target online speech, including in the recent conviction of a dozen individuals, many of whom were tried based on their online writings. OpenNet Initiative (ONI) testing

conducted in Ethiopia in September 2012 found that online political and news content continues to be blocked, including the blogs and websites of a number of recently convicted individuals.

Most URLs found blocked belonged to ONI’s ‘political’ category, including independent media and critical political blogs. The blocked content includes online portals Cyber Ethiopia (http://cyberethiopia.com), diaspora media such as Toronto-based TZTA Ethiopia Newspaper (http://www.tzta.ca), and other critical political organizations, including the website of the Solidarity Committee for Ethiopian Political Prisoners (http://www.socepp.de/)