Ethiopia Annual Safety of Journalists Assessment Report 2025
The 2025 Annual Ethiopia Safety of Journalists Assessment Report offers a detailed analysis of the risks, violations and systemic threats experienced by journalists and media workers throughout Ethiopia.
The report underscores ongoing and emerging challenges to media freedom; records patterns of physical, digital and legal threats; and presents evidence-based recommendations to enhance protection mechanisms nationwide.
The report was prepared by an independent consultant using localised and standardised monitoring tools. This year’s assessment highlights the increasingly complex environment in which Ethiopian journalists operate. Despite ongoing national reform efforts, journalists continue to face intimidation, arbitrary detention, digital harassment, gender-based violations and increased insecurity in conflict-affected regions.
The findings in the report show:
– Ongoing dependence on national security justifications to detain or intimidate journalists.
– Increasing digital surveillance and online harassment, particularly directed at women journalists.
– Rising dangers for journalists with disabilities and those reporting from conflict-affected regions.
– Significant gaps in accountability for crimes committed against journalists.
– Weak institutional mechanisms for monitoring, prevention, and emergency support
Watch a summary of the report with the author Brook Abdu Mohammed.
