Ethiopia: The Reporter, the last major private newspaper in Amharic, suspended indefinitely

The Ethiopian Media Authority announced on November 2, 2026, in a Facebook post, the indefinite suspension of the print and online licenses of The Reporter newspaper, effective immediately, reports Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a text published on November 3, 2026.

The organization specifies that the authority accuses the newspaper of having violated the country's laws and media ethics by repeatedly publishing content contrary to "national interests," as well as content it deems "distorted" and harmful to foreign investment, tourism, and diplomacy. No specific legal text is cited and no duration is set.

One of the country's oldest titles

The Reporter is published in English and Amharic. HRW describes it as one of Ethiopia's oldest media institutions and the last private newspaper in the country published in Amharic. A few days before the decision, its editorial team had published an editorial stating that it was going through one of the most precarious periods in its history.

Two journalists detained in October

In October 2026, two journalists, Samuel Getachew and Amanuel Gebremedhin, were arrested by plainclothes police officers and prosecuted for publishing information likely to cause unrest in Addis Ababa, according to HRW, which indicates that they spent eight days in detention. Journalists from The Reporter were also arrested, although the organization did not provide a figure.

Since 2025, Ethiopian authorities have banned numerous media outlets and expelled foreign correspondents, HRW asserts. For Laetitia Bader, Horn of Africa director at the organization, the use of the notion of "national interests" reflects the growing use of vague grounds to silence critical reporting.

What Ethiopian readers lose first

Closing a title read in Amharic primarily deprives Ethiopians of a source of information in their own language: press freedom is not measured only by the number of journalists in prison, but by what a reader can still find at their newsstand. HRW is calling on the government to lift the ban and end attacks on the media.

No Ethiopian official is quoted in the HRW text: the Media Authority expresses itself only through its publication and statement. The accusations it makes against the newspaper have not been examined by any court at this stage.