Eritrea ranked last for the fourth year in a row. "Journalists employed by the state media – the only kind of media tolerated – have to choose between obeying the information ministry’s orders or trying to flee the country. The foreign media are not welcome," according to the Index.
September marked the ninth anniversary of Eritrea's detention of a group of 30 journalists "for merely exercising their universal and fundamental choice for free press and right to free expression," according to a statement from the Eastern Africa Journalists Association (EAJA).
“The Eritrean government is the worst enemy of press freedom and the greatest violator of human rights in Africa,” EAJA Secretary-General Omar Faruk Osman said in a statement. "Democracy and rule of law have totally been suppressed in the country, and replaced by cruelty, brutality, and heartless oppression. The Asmara regime has ensured that journalism as a profession cannot be practised in the country and has become the greatest jailer of journalists and dissidents in Africa."
