Tedla Asfaw
At this age of communication, information is powerful if we want to empower our people. That is why I backed the Ethiopian Satellite, Esat which is known also by its Ethiopian "equivalent" "Fire" meaning "Esat" which launched its program on May 23 this year financed by Ethiopians in the diaspora. However, Esat has been knocked off air since last week as I have been hearing calls from viewers in the region by their disappointment of the only alternative TV to be knocked off air.
By now Arabsat knows the technical problem that crippled Esat and should inform the public on its findings. I am pretty sure that this is a rare situation and Arabsat must have a solution for such technical "glitch". However, if this is an information terror by the Ethiopian regime using the service of China to knock the TV off air they have to come out and tell us their findings without any delay. This should not be a BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico which has to continue for months for lacking of an engineering solution.
This is a war on information by Meles Zenawi's brutal regime which is busy sending its propaganda to Ethiopian diaspora in Washington D.C. at the expense of poor Ethiopians. The Obama Administration knows very well that VOA Amharic service has been jammed for sometimes and are using Arabsat to inform Ethiopians. It is appropriate for Obama to speak out against information terror and take a stand. A regime that is subsidized annually by more than 2 billion foreign aid should not allow to use this same money to deny Ethiopians free flow of information.
Meles Zenawi is now declaring war on information with the help of its foreign master possibly China. The similarity between the two regimes is now clear after the rigged election of May 23 which ashamed the Western backers of the regime that Ethiopia is indeed the China of Horn of Africa and to forget about pluralism . If we find that China is behind this jamming we will take it as declaring war on our people and we will respond in kind. We also ask Obama to come out and condemn the Meles regime who has been escorted as an ally on war on terror since 9/11 to stop jamming of airwaves or face the consequence.
At this age of communication, information is powerful if we want to empower our people. That is why I backed the Ethiopian Satellite, Esat which is known also by its Ethiopian "equivalent" "Fire" meaning "Esat" which launched its program on May 23 this year financed by Ethiopians in the diaspora. However, Esat has been knocked off air since last week as I have been hearing calls from viewers in the region by their disappointment of the only alternative TV to be knocked off air.
By now Arabsat knows the technical problem that crippled Esat and should inform the public on its findings. I am pretty sure that this is a rare situation and Arabsat must have a solution for such technical "glitch". However, if this is an information terror by the Ethiopian regime using the service of China to knock the TV off air they have to come out and tell us their findings without any delay. This should not be a BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico which has to continue for months for lacking of an engineering solution.
This is a war on information by Meles Zenawi's brutal regime which is busy sending its propaganda to Ethiopian diaspora in Washington D.C. at the expense of poor Ethiopians. The Obama Administration knows very well that VOA Amharic service has been jammed for sometimes and are using Arabsat to inform Ethiopians. It is appropriate for Obama to speak out against information terror and take a stand. A regime that is subsidized annually by more than 2 billion foreign aid should not allow to use this same money to deny Ethiopians free flow of information.
Meles Zenawi is now declaring war on information with the help of its foreign master possibly China. The similarity between the two regimes is now clear after the rigged election of May 23 which ashamed the Western backers of the regime that Ethiopia is indeed the China of Horn of Africa and to forget about pluralism . If we find that China is behind this jamming we will take it as declaring war on our people and we will respond in kind. We also ask Obama to come out and condemn the Meles regime who has been escorted as an ally on war on terror since 9/11 to stop jamming of airwaves or face the consequence.
