Addis Ababa – The Committee to Protect Journalists said on Thursday in Addis Ababa that Ethiopia has released five journalists detained for more than a year, shortly before the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama.
The Committee said two bloggers and three other journalists had been held on terrorism-related charges since late April 2014.
The committee said all charges against them were dropped.
It said Obama was due to visit Ethiopia on July 27, after two days in Kenya.
It said Obama had come under criticism over visiting a country with a poor human rights record, with the newspaper The Washington Post, saying that the visit “sends the wrong message on democracy.”
The committee said with at least 12 journalists remaining in prison, Ethiopia was the second-worst jailer of journalists in Africa after Eritrea. (dpa/NAN)
