Awlo Media Centre-Targeted Hours After the War Started

Awlo Media Center, launched in 2019 and known for broadcasting current affairs programs on YouTube, was temporarily shut down on the morning of November 4, 2020. Police officers raided its office without a court warrant, seized its equipment, and detained a journalist along with three staff members—just hours after the federal government declared a genocidal war on Tigray under various pretexts. The outlet later resumed operations briefly but was again shut down, and its journalists were detained for two months under harsh conditions in the Afar Regional State, far from the capital, before being released on bail. The media organisation has remained closed since then.

Read a news report from CPJ on November 10, 2020, about the first shutdown: https://cpj.org/2020/11/ethiopian-journalist-bekalu-alamrew-arrested-accused-of-disseminating-false-news/