VOA Addresses Ethiopia on World Press Freedom Day

On World Press Freedom Day, the Director of the Voice of America reaches out directly to VOA's Ethiopian audience in an open letter. In it, Director Danforth W. Austin expresses VOA's deep concern about efforts to interfere with the free flow of news and information. He cites actions that have been taken to jam VOA's shortwave broadcasts in Afaan Oromoo, Amharic, and Tigrigna, and to block access to VOA web sites.

 

Mr. Austin also promotes VOA's new daily audio transmissions on Arabsat at VOA 24, airing during VOA's regular shortwave broadcast hours in all three languages. He invites listeners to subscribe to VOA's electronic newsletter, or communicate with the Service by e-mail at horn@voanews.com, or by making a collect call and leaving a message.

"The Voice of America values its audience in Ethiopia," Austin writes. "On behalf of our Horn of Africa reporters in the region and all of our writers, editors, and technicians in Washington, D.C., I assure you we will do all we can to bring you news you can trust, news you have relied on for almost 30 years."

Read Mr. Austin's letter in its entirety at http://bit.ly/VOAEthiopiaStatement on our website,

www.VOANews.com.

 

Source: http://somalilandpress.com/voa-addresses-ethiopia-on-world-press-freedom-day-15371

(Yimber Gaviria, Colombia)