NAIROBI, Kenya- The independent Committee to Protect Journalists and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission have condemned a swathe of arrests of journalists, including some sympathetic to the Amhara ethnic group.
In a statement the CPJ said "at least eight journalists" had been arrested since April 3, mainly in the capital Addis Ababa.
The statement, released late Friday, said six remained behind bars "facing allegations which include inciting violence," adding the reporters "mainly report and commentate on political and social issues affecting the Amhara ethnic group," the country's second-largest.
The arrests paint "a deeply depressing picture of the state of press freedom in the country," said Muthoki Mumo, CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative, urging the reporters be released and that authorities investigate allegations of maltreatment.
The EHRC said for its part that "the government security forces should desist from arrests and intimidation of political parties’ leaders and members, media members and activists.
"When there is a case that they are suspected of crime and there is enough evidence, the arrests should be conducted in a careful manner and only as per the law," the commission added, likewise calling for the journalists' release.
Some of the reporters had recently criticised a government decision to integrate regional military forces into the federal army or regional police and dismantle regional military forces.
The move, which Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed justified as being designed to underpin multi-ethnic Ethiopia's "unity", sparked several days of public demonstrations in the Amhara region earlier this month.
Amhara forces were essential allies to the federal army during the two-year war in the neighbouring Tigray region, which ended with a peace agreement in November.
Ethiopia currently stands 114th out of 180 on a Reporters Without Borders freedom of the press ranking, 13 places lower than 2021.