Authorities intensify media crackdown ahead of national elections

Introduction

Ethiopia’s human rights situation remains of grave concern. As the country prepared for its 7th general elections (1st June 2026), multiple observers raised concerns over the conditions that prevailed across regions, including armed conflict involving regional forces and militia groups, civilians being trapped in fighting between the federal army and armed groups, and disruptions to normal life. Hundreds of thousands remained displaced, effectively disenfranchising them. Conflicts in Amhara, Tigray, Oromia and Benishangul-Gumuz, as well as widespread insecurity in these and other regions, affected campaigning. As the political environment grew more restrictive, politicians, journalists, bloggers and civil society leaders faced arrests and detentions.

This environment, observers noted, was not conducive to free, fair, and transparent elections. In a briefer published late May 2026, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) wrote that “[a]n electoral process cannot be considered credible, free or fair in a country where human rights defenders face systematic targeting, civil society organisations operate under the threat of suspension and dissolution, independent journalists work in a climate of fear, and armed conflict continues in multiple regions with little accountability.”

In March 2026, a group of 41 states raised concerns about Ethiopia at the UN Human Rights Council’s 61st session, among other things regretting the “further shrinking of the closed civic space in Ethiopia, including continued intimidation and harassment, arbitrary arrests and detentions of human rights defenders and independent media and journalists, while many have been forced into exile.”

In April 2026, eight political parties threatened to withdraw from the race unless authorities addressed what they described as widespread legal violations, violence, intimidation, and administrative obstruction. They did not follow through, however, on their boycott threat.

Throughout the reporting period, tensions also escalated between Ethiopia and Eritrea, building on Prime Minister Abiy’s inflammatory rhetoric about access to the sea and factional tensions within Tigray’s political class. In the northern region, which borders Eritrea, the situation remains precarious. Ethiopia’s transitional justice process, which was supposed to address grievances related to the 2020-2022 Tigray conflict and deliver justice to the victims and survivors, was practically stalled.

This denial of justice encourages repetition, including of sexual crimes against women and girls, in Tigray and other regions including Oromia. In February 2026, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed “alarm over the significant increase in grave violations against children, including killing and maiming, sexual violence, abduction, and denial of humanitarian access” and asked Ethiopia to adopt national comprehensive child protection legislation.

Despite an environment that did not permit genuine political participation or a level playing field, and despite insecurity and disruptions, elections were held on 1st June. Prime Minister Abiy’s Prosperity Party secured a “landslide” win with approx. 90% of the reported seats. Voting did not occur in Tigray, and 143 polling stations in Amhara and Oromia were closed for security reasons. This raises doubts about inclusiveness, in addition to issues around the credibility and free and fair character of the elections. Abiy maintained an overwhelming majority in parliament, while the opposition criticised the climate of fear and intimidation.

Association

The situation for HRDs and other independent actors remains extremely challenging. Those who have not gone into exile continue to face surveillance, arbitrary detention, judicial harassment and threats, by both state and non-state actors, particularly those documenting abuses in conflict-affected regions, including Amhara and Oromia.

In their May 2026 briefer, FIDH and OMCT mentioned a range of risks and threats facing Ethiopian HRDs, including detention, torture, and enforced disappearance, highlighting that “violations reminiscent of pre-2018 repression have returned with greater intensity” and that “[t]he re-emergence of the notorious Awash Arba military camp as a site of secret detention and torture is a deeply troubling development that recalls practices the country had appeared to move beyond.”

Women’s rights activists and women HRDs face hate speech and digital violence online, a form of technology-facilitated gender-based violence (GBV) that includes deepfakes and threats of acid attacks, gang rape and death.

After the 2019 CSO Proclamation marked a shift toward a more enabling legal environment for civil society, the situation deteriorated significantly following the conflict in northern Ethiopia, including the Tigray war (2020-2022). Numerous barriers to the operations of civil society organisations exist, including intrusive supervisory powers and restrictive rules governing routine functions.

Proposed legal changes, through amendments to the CSO Proclamation, threaten to nullify the 2019 gains by granting federal authorities sweeping powers to intervene in NGO internal affairs, enabling them, among other things, to prohibit foreign funding to groups engaged in governance and election-related work and to deny registration to, suspend, or dissolve organisations on vague “national security” grounds without judicial oversight. Authorities sustain pressure on independent NGOs, through both legal means/regulatory powers and extra-legal methods that include threats, intimidation, and surveillance. As a result, several civil society leaders have been forced into exile. At the time of writing, the status of the bill containing amendments to the 2019 CSO Proclamation remained unclear.

In parallel, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the country’s national human rights institution, has faced pressure, forcing its former Chairperson, Daniel Bekele (former Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International researcher) to resign. Under its new Chair, the EHRC has been prioritising promotion and capacity-building activities over more “confrontational” activities, such as investigations into human rights violations involving the federal government.

Expression

During the reporting period, Ethiopian authorities increased their pressure on independent journalists and media outlets through arrests, the imposition of reporting constraints, and arbitrary revocations of operating licences.

On 8th June 2026, Ethiopian journalist Salsawit Baynesagn was detained without charge. Her family told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that they suspected her detention to be linked to videos she posted online about the killing of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians in Oromia, in which she criticised the government and others for their “silence” over the violence. She was held for two days in a temporary detention facility, to which relatives were denied access, before being transferred to the Addis Ababa police commission, according to CPJ sources. She was scheduled to appear in court on 17th June, though at the time of writing, it was unclear why this did not happen. On 21st June, after two weeks of detention, she was released on bail.

In June 2026, Ethiopia expelled a French journalist, Augustine Passilly (La Croix newspaper’s Ethiopia correspondent), after a trip to the Tigrayan city of Shire to report on tensions linked to the 2020-2022 civil war. After her return to Addis Ababa, Passilly was summoned by the Ethiopian Media Authority (EMA) and questioned about the trip, after which her accreditation, which was valid until September, was suspended due to security concerns, and later revoked. Passilly’s story, published on 8th June 2026, said Shire’s residents were being subjected to forced recruitment and ordered to finance military camps.

On 24th February 2026, the EMA revoked the online media registration certificate of the Addis Standard, one of the last independent media outlets in Ethiopia, effective the same day. The EMA accused the Standard of repeatedly “disseminating reports” violating the country’s laws and media ethics and of “endangering national interests,” but did not cite specific violations. According to its Editor-in-Chief, prior to the revocation of its certificate, the Standard never received any formal notice of violations from the EMA. On 15th April 2026, Addis Standard managing editor Million Beyene was seized by unidentified men from his newsroom. The men, who were dressed in plainclothes, some wearing caps and face masks, told Million he was “needed for questioning” and took him to an undisclosed location. After being held incommunicado for 13 days, he was released on 28th April.

In the months leading up to the June 2026 elections, scores of Ethiopian journalists were arrested. This followed changes to the media law, which increased executive control over the EMA and empowered it to regulate media houses and journalists, as previously documented.

In Reporters Without Borders’ 2026 World Press Freedom Index, Ethiopia was ranked 148th out of 180 states, down from the 145th rank in 2025. According to Amnesty International, Ethiopian authorities have intensified their crackdown on press freedom “in a cynical attempt to silence criticism in the lead-up to the country’s national election.”