Reeyot Alemu | |
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Born | |
Nationality | Ethiopia |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Journalism |
Reeyot Alemu is an Ethiopian journalist. She was in prison for five years because of an unfair trial. In the trial, anti-terrorism laws were used to stop her from writing.[2] She won the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in 2013.[3]
Reeyot Alemu was born in 1980.[4] She was a high school teacher until 2000. In 2000, she started working as a columnist for a few local newspapers.[2] In 2010, she made her own publishing house and became the editor in chief of her own magazine called Change. They were both closed.[4] She wrote about social and political problems. She also wrote about poverty and gender.
In June 2011, she was arrested for terrorism. She was sentenced to 14 years in prison. She also had to pay a fine of 33,000 birrs (US$1,850).[5]
In August 2012, an appeals court changed the amount of time she would be in prison from fourteen years to five years.[6] She was at Kaliti Prison for those five years.
Reeyot was let out on July 9, 2015 after being in prison for four years.[7]
In 2012, the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) gave her a Courage in Journalism Award in absentia for not censoring herself, even though it could get her out of prison.[5]
In May 2013, she was given the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize for her courage.[3]