Journalist Tesfalem Waldeyes remains in detention despite having been granted bail. |Screenshot: Blank Spot Project/YouTube|
Wednesday 11 June 2025
Ethiopian authorities detained journalist Tesfalem Waldyes, founder and editor-in-chief of the privately owned news outlet Ethiopia Insider, on 8 June 2025 at the Ghion Hotel in the capital, Addis Ababa.
He remains in detention despite having been granted bail.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), called on the Ethiopian authorities to immediately release journalist Waldyes and underscored the Ethiopian government’s disregard for judicial processes and press freedom.
“The detention of Tesfalem Waldyes, even after a court ordered his release, underscores the Ethiopian government’s disregard for judicial processes and press freedom,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Muthoki Mumo. “Authorities must immediately release Tesfalem unconditionally.”
According to a statement by Haq Media and Communication, which manages Ethiopia Insider, and news reports, plainclothes security officers arrested Tesfalem on June 8 at the Ghion Hotel in the capital, Addis Ababa.
He was initially held at a police department in the city’s Estifanos neighborhood, and on June 9, he was transferred to a police station in another area of the city.
Today, he appeared before Addis Ababa City First Instance Kirkos Division Court, where police accused him of “spreading false information,” according to CPJ’s review of a court document and his lawyer, Betemariam Alemayehu, who spoke to CPJ by phone.
The court granted him bail of 15,000 birr (US$109) and subsequently issued a release order, which CPJ reviewed, following payment of the amount.
Even though police indicated their intention to appeal the release order, they had not formally done so by Tuesday evening, and they continued to detain Tesfalem, according to the Haq Media and Communication statement and Betemariam.
CPJ previously called for an investigation into the July 2023 burglary of Ethiopia Insider’s office, in which video production equipment was stolen. In 2014, Tesfalem was detained for 439 days on charges of inciting violence and terrorism.
CPJ’s phone calls and queries sent via messaging app to Addis Ababa police spokesperson Markos Tadesse and to Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu were not immediately answered on Tuesday evening.
