French reporter held for ‘conspiring to create chaos’

A FRENCH journalist has been arrested and detained in Ethiopia since February 22 on suspicion of conspiring “to create chaos” in the country, his employer announced yesterday.

Antoine Galindo, 36, had travelled to Ethiopia to cover the AU summit earlier this month for the specialist publication Africa Intelligence.

Following his arrest last week, he was brought before a judge on Saturday, who ordered his detention be extended until March 1, Africa Intelligence said, condemning the “unjustified arrest”.

“These spurious accusations are not based on any tangible evidence that might justify his deprivation of liberty,” it said, noting that Galindo had informed the Ethiopian authorities of his assignment and had a visa authorising him to work there as a journalist.

The journalist, who heads the publication’s East Africa section, lived in Ethiopia between 2013 and 2017 and was “known to the Ethiopia Media Authority”.

A source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Galindo was arrested on Thursday at a hotel in Addis Ababa while meeting an official from the opposition Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) party. He has since been held at a police station in Ethiopia’s capital. Ethiopian authorities did not respond to requests for comment.

An OLF spokesperson said a party official was arrested in Addis Ababa on Thursday but could not confirm if Galindo had met the official.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said yesterday that it was “outraged that a journalist on a legitimate reporting trip is targeted in this way”.

Galindo’s “unjust arrest highlights the atrocious environment for the press in general in Ethiopia”, the CPJ’s Africa branch said on its website.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, said that as of January 1 this year, 15 journalists were in prison in

Ethiopia. Last year, Ethiopia ranked 130th in the world in terms of press freedom, down 16 places compared to 2022, according to the NGO.

Ethiopia has expelled several foreign journalists since the end of 2020. “The surge in abuses against journalists seen since the start of the war in Tigray in November 2020 is not abating. Several journalists have been killed under unclear circumstances,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“Hostility towards foreign media was seen again in early 2023, when the authorities suspended around 15 foreign TV channels for allegedly operating without a licence,” it added.