Yesterday, Daniel Berhane opened a serious attack on the jailed journalist Eskinder Nega, alleging him of inciting genocide against Tigrians. His evidence? A hateful article published sometime in 2004 in the now defunct Amharic newspaper, Asqual. It has to be underlined here that whoever wrote that article must be ashamed of himself. Thank God, no one heeded his hateful and appalling message. Returning to Daniel’s accusation, however, there are several things that Daniel must clarify on his allegation of Eskidner Nega, who is seen by many as a brave journalist languishing in jail only because of his dissident, anti-government writings. First, it is not clear to me if Asqual was in fact edited by Eskinder Nega by the time the hateful article was published. What exactly was the nature of Eskinder’s involvement with Asqual? Was he an editor? A contributor? Owner? Or publisher? Eskinder’s role must be clearly defined before he can be accused of inciting genocide. Daniel didn’t do this unequivocally. But unless this is done (Eskinder’s role in Asqual clearly demarcated), it is impossible to take Daniel’s accusation seriously. Second, let us assume for a moment that Eskinder was indeed the editor when the hateful article was published in Asqual. But what if Asqual had a disclaimer policy which holds the contributors, not the editor, responsible for published contents. It is not uncommon to read disclaimers like the following in several newspapers: "The views expressed are those of the author, and are not necessarily those of the editor". Nowhere in his accusation did Daniel consider the possibility of Asqual running a disclaimer policy. Third, let us again assume Eskinder was the editor and Asqual did not have a disclaimer policy at the time the hateful article was published. What if Asqual had an open editorial policy commited to entertaining all kinds of opinions regardless of content? Even if we operate on this highly relaxed assumption, it again proves impossible to accept Daniel’s allegation. The morality of Daniel’s accusation of Eskinder aside, given that Eskinder is in jail at present and unable to defend himself of such a grave allegation, the accusation appears incomplete at best and unfounded at worst.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 02:17:01 +0000
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