Ethiopian Media Council (EMC), an independent self-governing media association in the country, urged the Government of Ethiopia to end its limitations on the Internet access mainly social media sites.
In its statement today EMC stated that media outlets in the country has expressed their concern about the blockade of social media sites, which has limited their constitutional right of collecting and disseminating information to their audiences.
The statement recalled that following the issues related to Ethiopian Orthodox Church it has been three weeks since the Government of Ethiopia has jammed social media sites such as, Youtube, Facebook, Telegram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, among others. “….Meanwhile there was no explanation from government authorities about the jam so far,” it said.
EMC stated that if there are violations by some Internet based media outlets, the best way is to make these media outlets accountable and bring to justice instead of denying the rights of all citizens and media outlets their right to access information.
In its statement EMC has also urged media outlets in the country to refrain from disseminating hate speech that may lead to bloody religious and ethnic clashes. In order to bypass the jamming, many people and media outlets in Ethiopia have been using free VPN service providers such as, PSIPHONE to access spocial media sites.