Nestled along the banks of the Red Sea and hidden in between Etheopia and Sudan is the small country of Eritrea. Eritrea, which has been dubbed “The North Korea of Africa” by NewStatesman reporter Gabriel Pogrund has been all but forgotten. With its self isolation as well as surrounding countries often attracting the attention of the multitudes of news outlets it’s easy to see how this little country an be overlooked by the rest of the world.
Reporters Without Borders is responsible for ranking 180 different countries according to the level of freedom each country has for journalism. According to their website, Eritrea not only has the lowest ranking currently, but has had it for the past 8 years. But what does this really mean? To put it into perspective CPJ.org delves into exactly what restrictions exist in this small country. The reigning president, Isaias Afwerki has devoted his campaign to controlling media and reporting completely. Reporters Without Borders captivates his attitude appropriately with this quote: “Those who think there will be democracy in this county can think so in another world.” TV, internet, newspapers and any other news outlets are completely state controlled, making it impossible to gain information from the outside world. Offenses made by the authorities against journalists include torture, forced labor, degradation during imprisonment among others.
A country as small as Eritrea is susceptible to being influenced by surrounding areas. With that said, it certainly doesn’t help that one of Eritrea’s surrounding nations, South Sudan, has dropped 15 places since 2013 due to their civil war, according to CPJ.
But what about the future? Because this country has so little output or intake of news, it makes it nearly impossible to figure out exactly what’s happening there. Even CPJ was unable to confirm with 100% accuracy how many imprisoned journalists were killed after being held simply for doing their jobs. CPJ also reports that less than one percent of the few million people populating this country have access to the internet. Even if they did, would they even benefit from it? The state controls all journalism and reporting. Which begs the question: Who will stand up for its people and who will stand up for journalism?