Until recently, Ethiopia has been hailed as an African success story. After a decade of strong economic growth, the country has begun to shed its image as a famine-struck wasteland.
But repression by Ethiopia’s authoritarian government has sparked demonstrations that have led to the deaths of hundreds of protesters this year.
The movement gained worldwide attention at the Rio Olympics when the country’s silver medal-winning marathon runner Feyisa Lilesa crossed his wrists above his head at the finish line in a symbol of the protest movement.
On this edition of Global Journalist, we explore the dangerous ethnic tensions fueling the unrest and the government’s effort to silence its critics after declaring a state of emergency.
Joining the program:
- Tsedale Lemma, editor of the Addis Standard magazine, an Ethiopian magazine forced to stop publication in October
- William Davison, Ethiopia correspondent for Bloomberg News
- Birhanu Lenjiso, an Oromo rights activist and former lecturer at Ambo University in Ethiopia
- Felix Horne, a senior researcher on Ethiopia and Eritrea for Human Rights Watch
Assistant producers: Bryce Arthur, Eloise Speleers, Menchen Xin
Supervising producer: Vera Tan
Visuals editor: Anadil Iftekhar
Audio engineer: Pat Akers
Director: Travis McMillen
Host: Jason McLure