VOA News, Washington DC, 20/04/2010–Technology experts in Washington, DC say the recent blocking of Voice of America radio and Internet broadcasts by the Ethiopian government is likely to have a negative long term impact.
The Ethiopian government recently began jamming VOA radio and Internet broadcasts in the lead up to the 23 May national elections.”If the government wants to remain accountable to its people, it has to lift its hand from suppressing independent media outlets,” said Getachew Gebretsadiq, a software engineer from Emerging Media Group.
The prime minster of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, accuses VOA of broadcasting destabilizing propaganda and he has said publicly he is seeking ways to completely block it.
Voice of America recently invited a panel of technology experts to discuss the jamming of VOA broadcasts. Tigrigna`s People to People program host Tewelde Weldegebriel asked them to explain how Internet blocking and radio jamming works.
“Nowadays, there are expensive softwares that can prevent internet blockage, but big organizations like VOA may not want to engage in such war games,” said Semere Taezaz, a former private newspaper editor in Eritrea, now a senior IT technician in Washington DC area.
The panelists agreed jamming radio broadcasts by Ethiopian government is “a severe act of censorship” which can only serve to increase the outrage of people in that country.
April 21st, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Jamming or not jamming make no difference. The facist dictator is already exposed and the only thing reamaining is his judgement day.
April 21st, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Are we back to this issue again.
EMF, you seem to have run out of ideas!
April 21st, 2010 at 8:05 pm
Weyenes can not jam the internet. There are many proxy webservers which can be used.
April 27th, 2010 at 5:32 am
ይልቁንስ ወደ ወሳኝና ተግባራዊው የግንቦት 7 የፍትህ የነጻነትና የዲሞክራሲ ተግባራዊ ሁሉን አቀፍ የትግል ንቅናቄን መቀላቀል የሕልውናችን በተለይም የውድ ሃገራችን የኢትዮጵያ ሕዝብን የማዳን ሃላፊነት ልባዊ ስሜት የሚሰማው ወገን ሁሉ እነዚህን የሃገር ነቀርሳዎች(ፋሽስት ወያኔዎችን) ለማስወገድ ቅስቀሳ የሚያስፈልግ መስሎ አይታየንምና: ወያኔዎች በሚዲያ ማእቀብ ብቻ ሳይሆን በማንኛውም የፖለቲካ በዘረኛ ወታደራዊ አምባገነንነት በማሕበራዊና በማንኛውም ረገድ ሕዝባችንን ወገናችንን እያሰቃዩ ስለመሆኑ የሚታይና የሚሰማ ከመሆኑም በላይ በንቅናቄው ዛሬውኑ አቋምዎን በማስተዋል እንደ ስጦታዎ ይሳተፉ::
አስተያየት በመስጠትና በመታዘብ 20 የሰቆቃ ዓመታት አለፉ::
ፋሽስት ወያኔዎች: ምርጫውን በጠመንጃ ማፈን ጀምረዋልና: አሁንም ከምርጫው ዲሞክራሲያዊ መንገድ አለ የምትሉ ወገኖች የዋህነትና ሞኝነትን ማስወገድ መብታችሁ ነው::
ሁሉም ነገር ኢትዮጵያን ወደማዳን ተግባራዊ እንቅስቃሴ!!!
April 27th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
In ethiopian calender in 1997 around 100pm by governer party over the oppressed massed of ethiopa people- i have a tragedy fighting. The tragedy was around Awtobustera (busstation or busterminal). it happend on june 1st in the morning or 8:00 0clock 0r 9:00 oclock . it was unable or difficulty to tell ethiopian youngs nubers of freedom seekers singing a song of ethiopian famous singner teddy afro, ” New goverment but no change come at all ” [ There is no democracy unnless the dictatoria goverment not eradicated from the bottom or root . Rerepeating the song each one termend out people following the crawds mean while the so called agazen solider or humane eaterd no body knows where they came from purpasely shooting at the crawded protesterd and the rest of others people running away from the tragedy. among the crawded many people died by the shouterd . the dead bodeist left where they where to be graved but the sorrowing thing is mother came out of her home unfortunately founded her son died shot by agazen solider poor mother crying and screaming the environment. the inviromental Agazen force turning to the crying mother with no sympaty shot her and left her over her son dead body. is this dimocracy ?